BUY A BLU-RAY DISC, GET FREE VOD

Borrowing a strategy from newspapers that allow paying subscribers free access to their websites who are otherwise blocked by a pay wall and cable systems that give customers video-on-demand access to certain content, NBC will allow viewers of The Office to watch episodes of Season 7 of The Office, which premieres on September 23, if they buy a copy of the entire Season 6 on Blu-ray Disc, which goes on sale September 7. In a press release, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, a corporate sibling of NBC, announced that purchasers of the disc “can watch the latest episodes of the Office without ever setting their DVR” if their Blu-ray players are able to connect to the Internet. There was no indication how this strategy will impact the availability of The Office on the Hulu video website, in which NBC Universal is a partner, and which has featured recent episodes of The Office. Throughout the summer, it has been offering Season 6 of the series in increments of five episodes.