If you thought the Comcast merger wouldn't affect you...

...you were naive. Despite promises to encourage competition, CBS is pulling Showtime content from Netflix as of this summer to put it exclusively on Comcast's XFinity service.

Amid an emerging rivalry between traditional pay TV operators and rising star Netflix Inc., CBS Corp.’s Showtime pay TV service confirmed Wednesday that back seasons of current original series such as “Dexter” and “Californication” will not be available on Netflix's streaming service as of this summer.

Instead, CBS will offer them to subscribers who pay for Showtime through Comcast Corp. on Comcast's Xfinity TV platform.

Luckily for me, I don't follow either of these shows. But it is only a matter of time before Comcast begins drawing more and more online content under their exclusive control.

Comcast to watch your living room

Most of the time when I see a post on Slashdot about some privacy issue I chalk it up to paranoia. So, this morning when I was parusing the site and saw a post about how Comcast plans to monitor who's watching TV, I was about to have my same reaction - the über-geeks are flipping out again. But then I read the article in question, and I have to say - I agree with the über-geeks on this one. Basically, Comcast plans on putting cameras in their equipment that they install in your house (DVR, cable box, etc...), so that they can watch who's watching TV and better program towards the watcher. Sounds like a great idea... until you realize that this kind of technology has about 18,000,000 ways of being misused. To quote the Slashdot post:

While this sounds 'handy,' it also sounds a bit like the TV sets in 1984.