Recently, we have started to see a major shift in the streaming service industry. Before, Netflix used to be one of the only options to watch movies and TV shows online. When that wasn’t enough, the company began producing its own original content. Then, competitors like Hulu and Amazon Prime Video came into the picture and began to do the same thing. That brings us to today where the number of options for streaming entertainment keeps increasing more and more. Both Disney and Apple have announced they would be introducing their own services that will also include new original shows and movies. Even NBCUniversal is making the jump in the streaming wars, which is creating some potential problems for Netflix subscribers. This competition could mean that Netflix will continue to lose some of its popular shows, including The Office.
A recent report in the Wall Street Journal analyzed the top 10 programs on Netflix and confirmed that The Office is arguably their most-watched TV show. Because of this, they are making claims that Netflix may have to venture off without its most popular show once its contract with NBCUniversal for the streaming rights expires:
“NBCUniversal, which owns the show, licensed reruns of the comedy to the streaming-video giant years ago,” the report notes. “Now, NBCUniversal is launching its own streaming service, and has begun internal discussions about removing The Office from Netflix when the contract expires in 2021, according to people familiar with the situation.”
On the otherhand, Netflix does not seem to be to concern about this prediction. They even tweeted out to fans on April 24th, stating that “… The Office will be on Netflix until 2021 – at least!”
These words comforted subscribers knowing that they have another year-and-a-half or so to be able to binge-watch reruns of The Office to their hearts’ content. However, the question still remains regarding how the future of streaming services will look like in the years to come since Disney+ will be offering the entire Disney library (including Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and more) at a competitively low price of $6.99/month — roughly half of Netflix’s current pricing.
Despite that, some analysts believe that Netflix is in a “unique position” because of the much-larger variety of content it offers to a wider audience, mentioning that “Disney+ features family content, while NFLX offers a much broader range of content with the majority of the most-searched content on the platform… As such, we do not view Disney+ as a strong alternative to NFLX.”
In the meantime, it looks like The Office seems like it will stick around for a while longer on Netflix… for now.
Source: ComicBook
probably at the movies.
