According to reports at the time, Netflix considered old episodes of The Office so valuable that Netflix made an offer in 2019 to the owners of the show for “up to $90 million a year for the rights” to continue streaming the service. That’s $90 million for one year to the rights to a sitcom that ended its nine-year run on NBC in 2013.

Instead, NBC reportedly paid $100 million for the show in order to make it a centerpiece of its new Peacock streaming service. Starting January 1, Peacock will be the exclusive streaming home for The Office. But there’s a significant catch — Peacock, which is an ad-supporting streaming service, is only making the first two seasons available for everyone. To watch the rest of the series, you’ll need to pay for either the $4.99 Peacock Premium, or the $9.99 Peacock Premium Plus, which gets rid of all the ads.

Paying customers at Peacock will get a few additional perks. The service is adding what they’re calling “Superfan Episodes” that include, per the press release, “never-before-seen footage and deleted scenes in extended cuts of the original series, starting with Season 3, with more coming in March.” You’ll also get behind-the-scenes footage, curated episode collections, and even a 24/7 “The Office Zen” channel, perfect for people working from home right now who miss the ambient noises of their annoying co-workers.

This will be an interesting test of popularity for both The Office and Peacock. So far, Peacock’s originals — Brave New World, a new Saved By the Bell — have gotten very little attention. The Office might have been even more popular in Netflix reruns than it was on NBC. But was it beloved enough to get people to sign up for — and pay for — a totally new streaming service just to watch it? In other words, do people love The Office, or did they just love having it accessible on Netflix? That remains to be seen. Either way, it may be worth noting that instead of paying $5 or $10 every month in perpetuity to watch Michael Scott act like a dope, you could pay $61 and own the entire series of The Office forever on DVD.

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