while I can see not wanting to provide a full movie metadata API, having "is this or is this not available on Netflix right now" seems like a really important API to have, one that allows websites people use to browse and find movies to funnel users into Netflix (and seems a natural fit for their very popular affiliate program).
Wouldn't that API use would also funnel users to its competitors in the case that Netflix doesn't offer the movie you were looking for?
I see their API closing as a natural business decision — anticipating a time when streaming services are a commodity and margins are thin on streaming licensed content they don't own. They'll have to compete with something else: their core service, their own content, and their recommendation engine (which I find to be fantastic). A public API fights against the recommendation engine. They want you to sit down and watch Netflix, not a movie in particular.
> Wouldn't that API use would also funnel users to its competitors in the case that Netflix doesn't offer the movie you were looking for?
I don't know what you are envisioning :(. What I am talking about is when you find yourself on some random movie review website, and there's a "buy/rent on iTunes" button, and a "stream from Amazon Prime" button, but no Netflix button, that sounds like it would be bad for Netflix. Especially so if the only reason the person added the "stream from Amazon Prime" button is because they wanted to have a "stream" button, were sufficiently lazy to only put one such button, and Netflix (their first choice as having a longer-term brand) didn't have an API available. Like, I can't imagine Apple ever deciding "no, we would rather have you put a buy from Walmart button on your website than a buy on iTunes button, so we are going to stop giving you database dumps".
Wouldn't that API use would also funnel users to its competitors in the case that Netflix doesn't offer the movie you were looking for?
I see their API closing as a natural business decision — anticipating a time when streaming services are a commodity and margins are thin on streaming licensed content they don't own. They'll have to compete with something else: their core service, their own content, and their recommendation engine (which I find to be fantastic). A public API fights against the recommendation engine. They want you to sit down and watch Netflix, not a movie in particular.