'The Office' Is Leaving Netflix In 2021, Will Stream Exclusively On NBC Universal's New Service

By Ben PearsonJune 25, 2019 3:32 pm EST

Netflix is about to lose one of the most popular shows on the streaming platform.

All nine seasons of the beloved NBC sitcom The Office will be leaving Netflix as soon as its current deal with the streaming service expires at the end of 2020. Instead, the show's new exclusive streaming home will be the yet-to-launch NBC Universal streaming service.

Variety reports that in 2021, The Office streaming deal with Netflix will come to an end, at which point it will jump over to NBC Universal's new streaming service. That service, which still doesn't have a name, is reportedly going to be launching sometime next year – but details about it are still relatively scarce.

Naturally, Netflix's PR team took the opportunity to swipe at the competition, implying that the NBC streaming service will include advertisements where Netflix does not:

We're sad that NBC has decided to take The Office back for its own streaming platform — but members can binge watch the show to their hearts' content ad-free on Netflix until January 2021

— Netflix (@netflix) June 25, 2019

Earlier this year, word came out that The Office accounted for nearly 3% of Netflix's entire viewing in the United States last year, adding up to a staggering 52 billion minutes. The series is one of the five most popular shows on Netflix, so that show vanishing from the service is going to be a serious gut-punch for its users who primarily use Netflix as a way to watch comfort shows on demand.

The streaming landscape will look very different in 2021 than it does right now. Disney+, AppleTV+, WarnerMedia, and NBC Universal's individual streaming services will be up by then. Quibi will be trying to make some waves on mobile devices. Netflix will still be around (and certainly still thriving), but will enough subscribers shell out a monthly fee for the right to stream The Office on NBC Universal's app? Will there be enough additional content there to justify yet another subscription to a streaming service? When is enough going to be enough? Audiences will draw a line at some point, because their wallets won't be able to handle being pulled in a million different directions at once, and you know what that means: those old DVD box sets – once looked down upon in the early days of the streaming wars as obsolete – are looking better and better every day.