Hacking NetFlix

Netflix Prize Data Dissected

Ilya posted his analysis of the more than 2 gigabytes of Netflix prize data on his blog.

An interesting one once again, the mean is 3.8! I guess on average we are satisfied with our movie choices - which makes it only so much harder for a ML algorithm to find an ‘even more’ interesting movie. One pattern that you cannot observe here is that the mean tends to drift to the right as the number of users grows - in 1998 the average was 3.4, by 2005 it steadily moved to 3.8. I wonder what accounts for the drift? Are early adopters (techies) more discerning in their ratings/choices? Are the movies getting better? (Doubt it!)

Ilya has also posted the graphs on Flickr.

via Netflix Fan Blog.

Mission: Impossible III Released Early

Divine reports that Netflix shipped out Mission: Impossible III on Friday, a bit earlier than the street date of October 30th. I was able to rent it at my local Blockbuster on Saturday (using the free coupon, of course). Employees at the store said that they had permission to release it early.

Amazon Unbox on List of "Scariest Tech"

Fortune included Amazon Unbox in a list of the Scariest Tech of 2006.

"It's slower than a trip to Blockbuster, more expensive than buying the physical DVD, absurdly restrictive on how the consumer uses the movie he or she pays for, delivers lower resolution than a DVD, and requires running a cable from the PC to the TV if you want to watch the movie on something larger than a PC monitor."

Windows Vista also made the list.

Thanks to Rick for sending this in.

Netflix Needs a "Spoiler" Button

I was reading through the Netflix customer reviews of The Departed to see what Hong Kong movie it was based on (Infernal Affairs) when I noticed that someone gave away the ending in a review. I've seen spoilers in other reviews, and I think Netflix needs to add "spoiler" to the review feedback buttons.

Should Libraries Outsource DVD Rental to Netflix?

NetflixisGreat tipped me off to a "lively discussion" on Palo Alto Online, where they debate if the town should provide a free Netflix subscription to every residence.

There are 20,000 residential units in Palo Alto. If the city were to buy a Netflix subscription for all of them the cost would be 1.44 million dollars per year.

But since Netflix would pick up 20,000 subscribers with zero marketing expense, would not have any deadbeat problems and would have the opportunity to upgrade all of those subscribers to higher level plans, it is likely that a discount of 50 percent would be in order.

I don't know how much it costs the city to buy, shelve, track, check in, check out, DVDs. Consider also the very large space required. It wouldn't surprise me that the city could save money and provide better service by outsourcing DVDs.

If libraries could offer a discounted subscription to library card holders, is that a good idea? Should libraries be renting movies in the first place?

Netflix Employee Talks About Blogging @ Netflix

Netflix employee Wesley Miaw responded to the Netflix Fan Blogger when she asked, Why no corporate blog for Netflix?.

...Netflix is a small company. A few hundred employees, and each of us can pretty much recognize by sight the other people that work at headquarters (maybe not by name). It's a company that emphasizes personal judgement and mutual trust. You are trusted to exercise good judgement in what you do. So I can have this blog, and it's my responsibility not to reveal secrets or information that might be harmful to the company (assuming it is ethical to withhold that information), and to make it clear that this is my personal opinion and not a company statement.

What I think is really important is that I can trust everyone else at Netflix. I'm not worrying about leaving my iPod out on my desk while I attend meetings, or that someone might try to get ahead at my expense. And it's equally important that this trust extends between all employees, from the CEO to the code monkey (me).

New Releases for October 31st, 2006

Click here for the full list of new releases this week (84).

Interesting movies include Mission Impossible III, Keeping up with the Steins, James Ellroy's Feast of Death, Three Wise Guys, Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America, Ghost Whisperer: Season 1, Baywatch: Season 1, Sixth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival, North Korea: A Day in the Life, The Who: In Their Own Words, and Hard Rock Treasures.

The New Netflix "Billion" Commercials

Update: Netflix issued a press release with more information about the commercials.

Here are some captures from the new Netflix commercials.

The first two screen captures were taken from my favorite commercials of the bunch. If you've ever wondered what it looks like inside a Netflix shipping center early in the morning, here's your chance to see the movies as they get ready to ship out to customers:

The rest are from a series of commercials that show movies on their way to customer's homes.

This one shows the headless horseman reading directions to a Netflix customer's house:

All of these commercials focus on the "Nearly one billion movies delivered" theme. This one shows a counter approaching 1 billion as movies are heading to houses.

What Will Movie Downloads Cost Netflix?

Herb Greenberg wonders what a movie download service will really cost Netlix:

But this much is clear: Downloading, a fancy euphemism for pay-per-view or video-on-demand, isn’t cheap and it isn’t simple to figure out, thanks to windows and licensing agreements with the studios. (I actually wrote on this when Netflix was rumored to be doing some kind of deal with Tivo.)

If Netflix ever really goes that downloading route, the question every investor should ask is: How much will it cost – not the technology, but the content? And how will Netflix pay for it? Consider that HBO spends $1 billion a year on licensing. That’s a lot more than $40 million.

via Seeking Alpha.

Top 5 Most Frequently Rated Netflix Movies

Sigmoid queried the Netflix Prize data (only a small sample of user ratings) to find the top 5 most frequently rated movies by Netflix members.

The top 5 most frequently rated movies:

Miss Congeniality (is this a joke by Netflix?)
Independence Day
The Patriot
The Day After Tomorrow
Pirates of the Caribbean

Benjismith also wrote queries to find the most-loved and most-hated movies (with SQL source code).

via Groovy Links.