NBC To Offer Original 'Office' Webisodes

NBC on Thursday said that it has quietly filmed 10 Webisodes of "The Office" for release this summer on its Web site, NBC.com. While NBC has made other TV shows available online, the network has never before created video programs exclusively for the Web.

Tied together, the two-minute episodes focus on the accounting department of Dunder Mifflin--a paper-supply company in Scranton, Pennsylvania--as it feebly investigates the disappearance of $3000. The network will post one new Webisode a week.

Since moving to Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m. in January, "The Office" has averaged a 4.5 rating, 11 share in adults 18-49 and 8.7 million viewers overall, according to NBC. The show--which debuted in March of 2005 on Tuesday nights--has twice in recent weeks scored as NBC's top telecast of the week among adults 18-34.

NBC is presently experimenting with a variety of different online strategies. The network is offering ad-supported programming--like short skits from "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"--for free on its own NBC.com site, and also is both selling and giving away entire episodes of shows on the iTunes store. In late February, for example, NBC began offering free downloads of its new legal drama "Conviction" over iTunes. NBC has since started charging $1.99 for new and archived episodes of the series.

Also, NBC is distributing its new drama "Heist" over MSN Video; a 15-minute preview of the show's premiere was available one week before it aired on TV, and the entire first and second episodes will post one week after each airs on TV.

NBC actually Webcast the premiere of "The Office" on MySpace.com in March 2005, more than one week before it ran on TV. That deal marked the first time that NBC Webcast a show online.

Next story loading loading..