Netflix Fan Favorite 'Heartland' Is Leaving the Streamer at the End of July

Shows come and go on Netflix all the time, but unless the show that's leaving the service happens to be one that you love, you're not likely to notice. Now, news has broken that Heartland, a Canadian Western that has been on the streamer for more than a decade, is set to leave the streaming service at the end of July. The show follows a family working on a ranch in Alberta, Canada, as they deal with inter-generational strife and the struggles of day-to-day-living.

Following the news that Heartland was bidding Netflix goodbye, many wanted to better understand why the show seems to be leaving Netflix after so many years. Here's what we know.

The simplest answer is that the rights for the show have gotten more complicated in recent years. The show has been airing on the CBC since 2007, but users who log in to Netflix to watch the 16 seasons of the show that are currently available there are now being notified that the show will be leaving the streaming service on July 31st. While Netflix doesn't explain why particular shows might leave, What's On Netflix was able to track down some additional information about their approach.

“Netflix licenses TV shows and movies from studios around the world," they explained. "Although we strive to keep the titles you want to watch, some titles may leave Netflix due to licensing agreements. Whenever a TV show or movie license is expiring, we consider things such as: If the rights to the title are still available, how popular it is in a region, and how much it costs to license.”

The good news for fans of the show, though, is that Heartland will still have a streaming home in the U.S. The UP Faith & Family is the first-run home for the series, and is where you can watch the show's most recent seasons now. Heartland is also available, entirely or in part, on Hallmark+, Prime Video, Peacock, The CW, and The Roku Channel.

One thing we can be quite confident of is that Heartland was not pulled from Netflix because it's no longer popular. Data from 2023 and 2024 suggests that viewers logged more than half a billion hours watching the show, equivalent to roughly 55 million views. While that's not quite as good as what Squid Game managed to pull off, it suggests that Heartland is still a draw for people, either because they're watching new seasons or revisiting old episodes.

Thankfully there will still be ways for Americans to check out the show, and Netflix will have plenty of other content that serves a similar function for years moving forward. Shows can't stay on Netflix forever unless they were created for the service, but that doesn't mean fans of Heartland shouldn't be sad that the long-running show will no longer be available on the streaming service most people call home.