'The Office' fans might be stuck paying $5 a month to watch the show when it leaves Netflix next year

• "The Office" is leaving Netflix for Peacock in January.
• NBC Universal is reportedly considering putting most of the series behind a $4.99 per month paywall.
• Peacock is NBC Universal's ad-supported streaming service.

When "The Office moves to Peacock next month, NBC is considering putting the popular workplace sitcom behind a paywall, Bloomberg's Gerry Smith reported on Friday.

NBC Universal has publicly considered pulling "The Office" from Netflix since at least 2019, when CEO Steve Burke said the company might move the show to its own streaming platform. Though it stopped airing in 2013, "The Office" is consistently one of the most popular shows on Netflix, frequently appearing on Netflix's own daily top lists. In 2019, Business Insider used Jumpshot data to find "The Office" was the most popular show on the service.

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On January 1, "The Office" will join other beloved series like "Law & Order" and "Will and Grace" on NBC Universal's Peacock streaming service, along with hundreds of other NBC shows and Universal movies. Unlike Netflix, Peacock is ad-supported, with the promise of 7,500 hours of free content. To access the rest of the streamable content, users have to sign up for Peacock Premium for $4.99 per month, or the $9.99 ad-free plan.

NBC is still considering using the paywall for the nine seasons of "The Office," according to Bloomberg. The $100 million a year streaming deal is expected to be a big selling point for Peacock, which launched in July. Sources told Bloomberg that NBC Universal is planning a big promotional push around the arrival.

One possibility is that early episodes of the series would be available for free, with the rest behind the paywall, another source told Bloomberg.

Read Business Insider's guide to Peacock here.