'The Office' to serve as a 'tentpole'

NBCU CEO Steve Burke said the company’s streaming service will be launched in April and rely on the Now TV platform.

With a slew of companies jumping into streaming, Burke, speaking on parent company Comcast's second-quarter earnings call Thursday, said that NBCU’s approach will be innovative and give NBCU a financially attractive way of getting into the market.

NBCU has announced that it will be taking back The Office from Netflix and putting it on its own streaming service. The Office was the top show on Netflix according to Nielsen, Burke said, and it will be a key to NBCU’s service.

“The Office is tied to the DNA of NBC. We see it as a tentpole program on our platform,” he said.