Posted on by tanster

‘The Office’ returns to iTunes!

From Engadget’s coverage of this morning’s Apple presentation:

Just in time for couch season, Apple has busted out iTunes 8 with a slew of new features, like the Genius sidebar. Also, NBC is back on board with its lineup of TV shows. According to Jobs, The Office is coming back, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock… and they’re coming back in HD.

UPDATE: download Fun Run for FREE (next two weeks only)! And that’s both the standard AND high-definition versions!

You can purchase Seasons 1-4 now: Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4

Other links: Engadget article | NBC press release

Tipsters: Joe, that1guypictures

67 comments

  1. OMG! I am about to move to Austria and now I have a way to keep watching. No more worries about Office withdrawal! :)

  3. Certainly good news, but now that they have it streaming on Hulu and NBC.com for free there will probably be less demand. Nonetheless, very cool I’ll be able to put season 5 on my iPod!

    I guess we all can be friends after all, right NBC?

  4. This is great to hear! It made no sense that there are plenty of customers who are willing to pay 2 dollars every week to watch The Office on their computers/iPods, then NBC decides to take that away. Hooray for business cooperation!

  6. Re: #1 They may only offer the shows in the iTunes U.S. Store. Or if they do offer them to int’l iTunes stores, it would only be the episodes that have already aired in that country.

    Case in point, we can’t get BBC shows that haven’t aired in the U.S., in the U.S. iTunes store. Sorry I am kind of a downer, just managing people’s expectations.

    BUT hopefully if tied to a U.S. credit card, you can continue to purchase from the U.S. store no matter where in the world you are!

  10. Re: #6 – You make a good point. It is possible to change what store you’re shopping from in iTunes. For example, I’ve been in Germany before and purchased something from the US store.

    So, here’s hoping…

  12. “Do you agree to waste every Friday lunch this fall watching The Office in HD from the iTunes store?”

    “Absolutely I do.”

  14. I’m very, very excited about this! Yay! What stinks is that we likely can’t buy episodes from previous seasons but this is VERY exciting.

  15. It’s nice to have Office and 30 Rock back on iTunes. However, I’m wondering WHEN. It may be a few weeks, because it’s not up today on iTunes 8.0.
    The other question is whether the episodes will be 1080p or 720p, since there’s a HUGE difference!
    If it’s $2.99 per episode for a 1080p that’s a steal, if it’s 720p it’s a little pricey. Either way, I’ll be curious to see if all 4 seasons of the Office will be presented in HD…since no Blu-Ray release is on the horizon. Either way, it’ll be nice to have the Office back on iTunes/iPhone/iPod…AND with no writers strike this should be a great year!

  18. Can we find Hunter’s deeply moving track, “That One Night” on itunes? It really speaks to the heart…

  19. I am almost in tears. I am so happy. I’ve missed watching The Office on my iPod while on the train. I love having it on my computer to call it up whenever I want. Yay!

  27. Wait!!!
    Season 1-3 are available now in HD and SD.
    If you buy the HD version it comes with an SD version for your iPhone/iPod.

    Only downside is that the video does not seem to work with a lot of PC’s/Mac Laptops. Extremely fast processing is required.

    Here’s a link to the page with iTunes content…

    Season 3

    Season 2

    Season 1

  28. HA! I knew Amazon Unbox wouldn’t work out! In the season 4 writers’ panel special feature, they even took a swipe at Unbox.

    I said it before, I’ll say it again: NBC was idiotic to pull their shows off iTunes. They were making money off people like me who would buy episodes weekly off iTunes, then buy the season DVD for the special features.

  30. Yahoooooooo! Now I can watch my favorite episodes on my ipod when on the train again, so happy, la la la!

  32. Pft, Engadget…I’m more of a Gizmodo man, myself. I followed their liveblog during fourth period today (on my iPhone, no less). Mrs. Nagel, if you are reading this, I am very sorry.

  34. Where are the non-HD versions of The Office on iTunes? I don’t think it’s worth it for me to spend an extra $1/episode…

  35. This is really exciting!!! Plus did anyone see the new ipod nano? This day is the best!

  41. YAY! I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled I am about this, especially since I’ll have class on Thursday nights once again in the fall.

  45. So excited for this !!! I was hoping they were going to do this when the 4th season came out. And I really want to get all of them but that’s really expensive. Are they for sure going to keep them on Itunes for a long time? Anyone know by chance ? Thanks ;)

  46. I went straight to the iTunes site and downloaded a few episodes on HD. You have to upgrade Quicktime to get the best picture possible. I must say, it looks absolutely amazing. Crisp, clean, it’s comparable to my HD DVR and HDTV. It’s better than Hulu in picture quality, and there are no commercials. It was a pleasure watching “Local Ad” on my iPod this morning as well as “30 Rock”.

  49. The last few Season 4 episodes will remain on NBC.com until just before premiere, then once the show starts only Season 5 episodes will be free online. The same applies to Hulu.com.

  50. Kristine, they should be on forever now. NBC initially wanted Apple to increase prices, but Apple stayed firm, so NBC took its ball to play elsewhere. They started hulu, but obviously they’d gain more revenue by crawling back to Apple, so it appears they swallowed their pride and did just that.

  51. I just wanted to add that when you purchase the HD version, you will also get the SD (standard def) download simultaneously. As far as I can tell, the HD can only be viewed on your computer. Your iPod will launch the SD version. You can’t view HD episodes on your iPod.

  52. Is anyone having trouble downloading ‘Fun Run’? I can add it to my cart but when I try to download it, it says “Unavailable”.

  53. OMG this is so exciting!!! I have seasons 1-3 on my iPod and always used to get season passes but obviously couldn’t last season. So excited! :)

  56. hmmm i thought i read on here that the episodes would be 1.99. they’re actually going to be 2.99 now, according to itunes. just thought i would let everyone know!

  58. #52(Katie) – I was having the same problem. I ended up turning off my shopping cart feature and just using the 1-click purchasing… it worked the next time I tried it. Good luck!

  59. I use the shopping cart on iTunes so I added Fun Run to it today but for some reason it’s saying that it is unavailable to download. Anyone know why?

  60. Has anyone else had a problem with the HD version being skippy and choppy?

    [from tanster: yes, me! i can’t get it to play at all. suggestions anyone?]

  61. Thanks for the tip e fradella. I am also having trouble getting fun run onto my ipod. It’s downloaded onto my tv shows sections, it just won’t sync ? Anyone got any suggestions ?

  62. If the HD version is really choppy, the video card on your computer may not be able to handle the big file. :( Try playing it with only iTunes open and see if it works!

    [from tanster: ah, okay. thanks! :) ]

  63. Goodbye, The Sims 2. I had to delete it to fit Fun Run on my hard drive. And by the way, I’m the top iTunes reviewer for S4! My name is TobySucksRocks and I’m pretty impressive with my reviewing, if I do say so myself. Check it out! :)

  66. Yeah, I can’t seem to find season passes for the office or 30 rock on itunes and I live abroad- I need to get this estalished asap!

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