Showtime, Gone

Netflix, a company that offers movies and television shows both online streaming to your computer or wireless device, or shipped to your house, has experienced incredible growth since the launch of its "Watch Instantly" program in 2007. Netflix offers a variety of Starz and Showtime productions available instantly, along with the thousands of movies, and some people, especially those work for the companies that manage Starz and Showtime are criticizing Netflix because it essentially defeats the purpose of Starz and Showtime, which offer a greater variety of shows and movies. According the March 23, 2011 article in the Wall Street Journal by Nat Worden titled "CBS to Remove Some Showtime Content From Netflix," Showtime is moving on to bigger and better things. Worden states that: 

CBS Corp.'s Showtime unit said it will remove some of the premium cable network's shows from Netflix Inc.'s streaming video service, days after the online video distributor said it planned to offer its own original programming.

Showtime spokeswoman Johanna Fuentes confirmed that it will remove from Netflix all episodes of TV series that are currently running on the channel when the current distribution deal expires this summer. That leaves Netflix subscribers with limited time to watch old episodes of shows such as "Dexter" and "Californication," which are currently available on the streaming service.

Showtime has decided to step away from Netflix with its newer shows with its contract with Netflix expiring within the next few months. This move marks yet another of Showtime's attempts to bring in more direct revenue, along with offering "its own original programming." Netflix may experience some loss of business, but I doubt it will be anything significant because Netflix has already become so widely popular as of late, and I doubt this move will affect Netflix much overall.