BBC Worldwide America Scores Digital Deals on The Office

NEW YORK, August 7: Ricky
Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s award-winning British comedy The Office has scored several digital deals in the U.S.,
bringing it to BBC America On Demand, Netflix.com and Vuze.com.

Beginning this summer, two seasons of six half-hour episodes
each, plus two specials, will be made available digitally for the first time in
the U.S. Netflix, the online movie rental service, will allow its subscribers
to watch the show via its website, in addition to offering up the DVDs. Vuze,
the Internet video portal with 7 million users, will be the first
non-subscription service to offer the program on a pay-per-view basis. The
first episode will be available for free in download and high resolution
streaming formats. And beginning this fall, BBC America On Demand will give
viewers on Comcast and Time Warner systems unlimited free viewing.

Beth Clearfied, the VP of digital media and program
management at BBC Worldwide America, noted: “We were thrilled to secure the
digital rights to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's original version of
The Office in the
U.S. We have been able to work with our wide network of digital media partners
and colleagues at BBC America to secure distribution on platforms that
perfectly match the show's audience demographic. The Office is one of the most brilliant
comedy shows of the past decade and we are absolutely confident that it will be
a hit with digital audiences across the U.S.”