Netflix API Developer Blog

Upcoming Changes to the Netflix API Program

Over the past years the Netflix business has evolved to focus on delivering a great streaming experience on a wide variety of consumer electronics devices. Similarly, we have been evolving our API program to focus on servicing the rapidly growing universe of these devices used by our more than 26 million streaming members globally. As the API program evolves with the business, we now need to make some changes. While we will continue to support third parties as they develop and offer Web sites and applications that interact with Netflix, these changes are designed to do so in a way that is aligned with our broader objectives.

Here is a detailed description of the changes and the timing for each.

Functional Changes

  • We have already modified the value of the <available_until> element for all titles to be 1/1/2100 unless the title is to become unavailable within two weeks of the requesting date.
  • We will be removing the following endpoints, effective on September 15, 2012:
    • /users/userID/rental_history
    • /users/userID/rental_history/shipped
    • /users/userID/rental_history/returned
    • /users/userID/rental_history/watched
    • /users/userID/at_home
  • We will be removing the following elements from the title_states endpoint, effective on September 15, 2012
    • <watched_date>
    • <playback_bookmark>
    • <watched_to_end>
  • We will be removing the following RSS feeds, effective on September 15, 2012:
    • Most Recent Rental Activity
    • Movies At Home
  • We will be removing all metadata for the rental history, recently watched, at home, etc. in all expands for all endpoints.
  • We will be changing the API base URL domain from api.netflix.com to api-public.netflix.com.  This new domain is active now.  All requests will need to point to it by September 15, 2012, when the api.netflix.com domain will be retired.
  • We will be retiring all existing versions of the catalog index files, to be replaced with new catalog index files.  The new files will be structurally the same as the 2.0 version but there will be two files, one for streaming and one for DVD.  The new files will be available in the coming weeks (we will post here with the new endpoints) and we plan to retire all other existing endpoints on September 15, 2012. 
  • We will be retiring the AppGallery pages found at http://www.netflix.com/AppGallery.  This is effective immediately. These pages were outdated and seldom used as people tend to go to various App stores and other Web sites to find applications.

To be clear, none of these changes will affect the Queue-related resources or data.

 Terms of Use Changes

The Terms of Use has been updated and will be effective today.  That said, for developers that have applications that need to be changed, they will be grandfathered in until September 15, 2012.  To view the revised Terms of Use, go to <a href=”http://developer.netflix.com/page/Api_terms_of_use”>http://developer.netflix.com/page/Api_terms_of_use</a>.

Support

From now on, we ask that you now contact Netflix API Support at [email protected] as we will be retiring [email protected].  This change is effective immediately. 

If you have questions about these changes, please address them to this new email address or bring them up on the forums. 

- Daniel Jacobson, Director of Engineering for the Netflix API

11 Comments

  1. pjsr – 2 days ago

    Thanks for the heads up. Are there any other alternatives that we may use for fetching a user's rental history or is it going away permanently meaning that developers cannot pull a user's rental/watch history at all starting Sept 15, 2012?

  2. Mike – 2 days ago

    I have the same question, what are the options available for fetching a user's rental history?

  3. sbv002 – 2 days ago

    Wow. In essense, all the API stuff that 3rd party developers use to make value-added applications that work better than netflix's own site... is going away. LOL... shaking head...

  4. Krazypaige – 2 days ago

    @sbv002, sounds like it.

  5. cresswga – 2 days ago

    If there is no rental history and no rental RSS what is the purpose of keeping /users/user_id/ratings/title?

  6. JustJon – 2 days ago

    So apps will no longer be able to pull rental history to get the user's ratings history? And why no longer allowing devs to pull when a movie expires from Instant?

    Is Netflix just trying to cripple their API and the apps built on it?

  7. Matthew Foster – 2 days ago

    They must be about to relaunch Qwikster!

  8. Dan Hinsley – 2 days ago

    Just one more comment about the removal of rental history. I find this a very useful facility, as frequently a user can't remember whether they've seen a movie or not. It's extremely useful to be able to search the rental history and tell that, yes, 3 years ago you actually watched that movie.

    I know you're trying to emphasize streaming, and make it better. But I would have thought that your first experience with making DVD renters 2nd class citizens would have shown you the folly of this path. By all means do things to improve streaming, but don't go out of your way to make DVD rental a less pleasant experience.

    That being said, I do appreciate the heads up with time to make the required changes.

  9. Daniel Jacobson – 2 days ago

    Unfortunately, there will be no way to get rental/viewing history data after September 15th. DVD-related catalog data, rating titles, adding them to queues, viewing queues, etc. are all still in tact. The same is the case for streaming titles. The rental/viewing history changes are necessary to reflect the changes to the business. Those are the only endpoints/metadata that are affected.

  10. Mike Kirsch – 2 days ago

    As far as I'm concerned, NetFlix ruined the business and became irrelevant when they doubled the price and split into two services. As a customer, I gave up DVDs because I could never get any new releases and, thus, was paying for no content; as a streaming customer, I quickly became sick of all the old stuff and no quality new stuff to stream. I haven't canceled yet, but intend to. Especially since I recently "discovered" Redbox.

    So it is no surprise that the APIs are being changed in a manner that totally benefits NetFlix's business without regard to whether the time and effort developers invest in applications can realistically generate an income.

    Adios, NetFlix!

  11. Art On Web – 7 hours ago

    I am very amateur in Netflix, but the detailed information about changes in RSS, and other sections are very usefull indeed

    http://artonweb.gr

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