Audible will charge $1.95 per episode or $6.95 for the season, which will include at least four episodes by the creator and star of British television’s "The Office." Audible’s exclusive deal also runs for a "season three," which will start in the fall.

The move is the first major example of a free podcast attempting to go paid, said David Joseph, Audible’s vice president of corporate communications and strategy. "We’re helping Ricky to build a business so he can pay his people."

The move is part of Audible’s pitch that it can help create more revenue for podcasts than is possible from a free MP3-based model. The company also claims technical advantages, such as the ability to easily move through chapters and the ability to have smaller file formats by using greater compression than is possible with MP3.