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Consumers who dream of watching HBO hits like "The Sopranos" or "Game of Thrones" by streaming to TVs using their Netflix accounts shouldn't hold their breath.

Netflix will start streaming the hit TV series "Mad Men" in a multi-year deal the online movie rental company struck with Lions Gate, the show's producer....

Netflix has evolved as a service that has been more or less complementary to traditional pay-TV business, flourishing in monetizing older content and offering it at minimal prices to customers. While there was skepticism around the model, it has proven immensely successful (at least until now) and has led to rapid subscriber gains. However, Netflix is now stepping on pay-TVs toes and a larger battle appears to be brewing as Netflix has successfully acquired its first original TV series, House of Cards, by outbidding HBO.

CBS's Showtime plans to remove some of its original programming from Netflix's online video service, which is becoming more of a competitive threat to pay-TV.

Netflix and NBC Universal have struck a deal to load the streaming video site with tons of content from both NBC and its family of cable networks, including all 35 seasons of Saturday Night Live, and new episodes of the sketch comedy show the day after air.Saturday Night Live just aired its season premiere last night, but were not seeing the episode on Netflix. Apparently the deal hasnt been executed just yet.The day-after premiere episodes will continue through 2012, but neither Netflix nor NBC specified how long the other content deals will last.