NBC gives iPhone users access to full episodes of 'The Office'

Ben tells us NBC shows like "The Office" and "30 Rock" are selling on the Zune Marketplace for $2 per download, but if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch you can watch these two shows for free on the iPhone optimized NBC website. Silicon Alley Insider says full episodes of these two shows are available to iPhone users in unprotected Quicktime format and without advertisements, which doesn't make sense considering the network pulled all its shows from iTunes due to a pricing/DRM dispute.

Nevertheless, to access these shows on your iPhone, you have to go to NBC.com, which will automatically redirect you to its iPhone optimized section. So far only full episodes of the "The Office" and "30 Rock" are available under the video tab, but you can view short previews of other NBC shows such as "Heroes" and "Deal or No Deal" on other parts of the site. The video quality is not great at the moment, but it looks like this new offering for iPhone users is still new, so there's a chance it might improve later once the network adds more shows in the future.

I'd love to know what NBC is planning to do here, but until it sheds more light on this project, I'd say take advantage of the offering while it lasts. It's a good way catch a missed episode of the "The Office," especially now that iPhone users get free Wi-Fi at all AT&T hotspots which does include Starbucks and Barnes and Noble.