Where can I watch Showtime programming in Canada?

Showtime, the pay television channel launched in the United States in 1976, has been for many years a source of high-quality, prestige programming such as Dexter, Homeland, and Weeds. The service launched as a division of media conglomerate Viacom, and is now part of that company's most recent successor, Paramount Global.

Much like HBO, the American Showtime channel has never been available for distribution in Canada in an authorized manner. Thus, the ways in which Showtime programs have been available in Canada have varied over the years – and this is set to change again in 2023.

Beginning in January 2015, Bell Media had held exclusive rights to new Showtime programming in Canada under a "long-term program licensing and trademark agreement" announced that month with then-owner CBS Corporation, which has resulted in most new Showtime programs, and much of the service's library content, being available in Canada on Crave, Bell's premium TV / streaming service.

However, much of this library content will be removed from the service in December 2022, according to Crave's listings for that month. Bell Media subsequently confirmed in a statement to WCIW in late November 2022 that as of January 1, 2023, Crave would no longer have rights to new Showtime content, except for past and future seasons of Showtime series already airing on Crave such as Billions or Yellowjackets. These will likely remain available on Crave until shortly after the respective series ends.

While not yet confirmed, it seems likely that Showtime owner Paramount will be moving the brand's library and future content to the Canadian version of its own streaming service, Paramount+, in 2023. Paramount+ has been growing the size of its catalogue in Canada throughout 2022, while Showtime content has already been integrated with Paramount Plus – either as a bundled add-on option or directly in the main library – in all other countries where the service operates.

Note that some programs originally commissioned by Showtime were produced by other companies that control distribution rights, or to which rights revert at some point after the series ends. For example, Homeland was produced by a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox – now owned by Disney – and thus now streams exclusively on Disney+ in Canada.

This article is a work in progress – we plan to update it with more details about specific Showtime programs in the future.