Netflix Makes Controversial Changes to API Program

Netflix announced several key changes to the developer API program, including the removal of expiration dates of titles except for the ones expiring in two weeks, removal of customer rental data, and a change to the API terms of use.

The only reason I can think of Netflix not wanting to share expiration dates is for competitive reasons -- I don't think they really want to upset any customers after last year. If Amazon, Apple, Redbox or other competitor knew that a title like Mad Men was expiring in 3 months, they could try to out-bid Netflix for the title or just drive up the renewal price. By hiding this data Netflix is making it harder for competitors to know the length of contracts or the expiration dates of agrements. 

I proposed to a contact at Netflix that they warn customers with expiring series in their queue a month or more in advance, which could give them time to finish watching it, and was told that they would take it under consideration.

I wanted to get developer feedback on the changes, so I contacted the publishers of two popular Netflix-related websites and applications:

Raghu Srinivasan from Feedfliks had this to say about the changes, "I am disappointed, of course. I think it's a bad move wrt developer relations. To an extent, I can see that their private API so far outstrips the public API in usage that they need to assign resources and attention appropriately but with this, I think they have swung the pendulum too far. Back when they announced that they were going to remove all DVD related info from the API, it was at least consistent with the company structure to become streaming only and leaving DVDs to Qwikster. This move makes even less sense than that - and that's saying something! It's a great API and the folks on the team and awesome but it's a pity that so much of the effort has gone to cutting back what's available (first reviews, then expiry dates and now this) and so little to actually making more information available. I hope they change their mind but I am not optimistic that they will."

Daniel Choi from Instantwatcher: "The API changes don't affect the operation of Instantwatcher, with the possible exception of the change in future expiration dates.  Most of the upcoming API changes will only require us to change a few lines of code, to point our API querying code to a different URL, and minor things like that. The structure of the API data is staying the same, so our API data parsers won't have to be rewritten. Instantwatcher also doesn't use the parts of the API that going to be deprecated, since Instantwatcher doesn't query anyone's rental history. In the past instant streaming titles had expiration dates sometimes several months into the future. But now they won't have specific expiration dates unless they are due to expire within the next two weeks. I don't think most users will be too upset by this change."

Thanks to everyone that sent this in (there are too many to list).

Comments

[richard]

I wasn't too upset about the expiration date changes. Some users have complained, but it hasn't been an overwhelming majority or anything. However, removing the rental and viewing history is a bit of a bummer. My site uses that data to allow users to filter watched/rented movies out of their search results. I also had some cool features in the works that used that data, so that work will need to be scrapped now. I guess it's good that Netflix is giving us a heads up that these changes are coming, but it still kinda sucks. -- Richard Hoppes, instantwatchdb.com

[Tvaddic]

I'm just speculating, but maybe Netflix removed the rental history so that they couldn't get sued if a 3rd party leaks the history, Netflix gave the 3rd party access, so the person that was affected would probably blame Netflix even though they allowed the app to do it. Who knows?

[Schmye Bubbula]

Wait until you're in the middle of a multi-season TV series and you suddenly get a two-week warning that you won't be able to finish it, THEN you'll grasp the significance of expiration dates! This totally hoses our ability to plan ahead for viewing. Not only do we need the full expiry dates back for inspecting on third-party Netflix webites, we additionally need to be able to sort our Instant Watch queues by reverse-chronological expiration date, so we can watch the soonest-expiring ones first. This is the most user-hostile affront yet, in my mind worse than the Quickster fiasco.

[Tvaddic]

I kind of understand why they don't show the expiration date, say they have the date out a month in advance, that is enough time for Amazon or Hulu to come in and get a deal for a popular tv show, and tout that they have what Netflix lost, they day they lost it. It is a move to block the competition.

[CordCutter]

We were on the fence in regards to Amazon Prime. I wasn't huge on their selection and their interface sucks ass... but my wife recently finished school and got back into recreational reading and the lending library was attractive. Then they announced the addition of "Watchlist" and we thought it was worth the money. I signed up yesterday. I have added 29 movies to my Watchlist and was surprised/happy to see clear as day it says "Prime Until XX/XX/XX". They give you the prime expiration right up front in the web portal. Now, I only signed up yesterday and everything I have expiring does so on the 30th of this month, so I'm not exactly how far-out reaching it is, for me just 10 days. Still though, it's easy to access and up front. The black-and-white date is nice, none of that "Expiring soon" baloney. The expiration date doesn't carry over to Amazon's Roku app, yet. I rarely use NF.com to view movies or even manage my queue. Does NF have a concrete expiration on Instant Watch titles? I don't think they do but wanted to ask. If not it's one way Amazon is actually superior to NF.

Everyone slams NF when they lose titles/adds titles they deem crappy, but I wanted to throw out of the 29 movies in my Watchlist 5 are expiring on the 30th. Pretty big chunk. Having only 1-month experience with Amazon (free trial), I'm anxious to see if their titles re-up like most NF titles do after expiration.

[Kale Barton]

I agree with Schmye Bubbula. For tv shows, it's a pain top be in the middle and then get the expiration notice. I don't like forced marathons-you don't get to sit back and enjoy the show beause you're rushing to beat the deadline. With movies, at least you know that a 2 year contract will include hiatuses, and that a title can return after a break (during the contracted period)
And since each deal yields a press release heralding the addition of newly added content, the theory that they don't want competitors knowing exact expiry dates doesn't hold up very well. If Amazon Prime were lusting after Nude Nuns With Big Guns. it seems more than likely that they could find out thru other channels than checking instantwatcher and feedfliks.

[Tvaddic]

@Kale
They press releases are vague, they say thing like "multi-year" licensing deal.

[chris]

My biggest disappointing was that they removed the App Gallery. I know it didn't change often, but it was honestly how I use to go to sites like feedflicks, dvdlater and instantwatcher.

Not only that, it's how I found out about those sites to begin with. I know Netflix says it was old and dated, which I guess is true, but it still served its purpose and was dynamicly content driven by those developers. In my opinion, that dynamic element invalidates the "dated" code.

[sam]

'Expiration' date may just as well say 'Negotiation' date, it's often misleading and leads to more confusion than is helpful. I care more about Coming Attractions.

[ceres]

I watch several series at different times, now will have no idea where I am in any given series. This will be a major problem. Also, am not good with titles, without the rental history list I will no doubt rent duplicates that I've seen before. Bummer doesn't begin to describe it, Netflix.

[Tvaddic]

@ceres
From my understanding, the user will see the rental history at Netflix.com, but not the app developers, And when you go a a film you already streamed, or rented, it tells you the date, and how long you watched it.

[Portalogem]

While agreeing with Schmye Bubbula, Kale Barton and Ceres -- I want to further emphasize that this ties into the issue of Netflix placing instant watch titles into the hidden saved section that can't be accessed or deleted once movies and shows expire, so if you're not vigilant in looking at movies and shows expiring every two weeks, you can lose a bunch of instant watch queue slots. I have since solved this problem by using instantwatcher to backup my instant watch queue, save them out of my queue and then print them out so I can keep my queue open, only placing movies I want to watch in the queue within the next two weeks. But who wants to do that?

I would like Netflix to again allow us to delete our saved queue or at least separate the hidden saved movies so it doesn't go toward that 500 slot limit -- or why don't they just remove that 500 queue limit? That way expiration dates for movies wouldn't be much of a problem as I could later catch those on DVD. Now shows are another issue all together....

I wrote a about this issue a couple months ago in the netflixcommunity.ning forum when the issue became known to me, focusing a lot on what these three people commented on above.

"Hopefully, if enough people complain, Netflix will stop masking their expiration dates so we'll know, years in advance, when lengthy shows (such as "Star Trek" and "Star Gate" that not only have multiple seasons but also multiple shows) will expire, so we don't miss the remaining episodes or attempt to run a marathon because we suddenly find out we have to watch 7 seasons of "X-Files" in 15 days."
http://netflixcommunity.ning.com/forum/topics/another-blow-to-the-instant-queue-expiration-dates-after-may-12th