Netflix announces changes to its public API program

Netflix announces changes to the third party app platform that mean new affiliates will no longer be accepted and no new API keys will be generated. Existing keys will remain active but developer forums are set to read-only.

In a blog post, Netflix director of engineering, Daniel Jacobson writes that times have changed since 2009 and "Its primary focus is to support the myriad devices used by our 33 million members to stream TV shows and movies from Netflix."

The public API allowed users to exprience additional features such as browsing recommendations outside of Netflix's own secret algorithm. Access for current API users is still available and will work as normal.

Jacobson states the changes, "are also designed to allow us to continue to offer the public API program in a way that aligns with our goals."

Here is the full list of reported changes:

We will no longer issues new public API developer keys. All existing keys that are actively calling the API will remain active.

We will no longer accept new API affiliates. There will be no impact to existing and active affiliates.

We will no longer offer test environments. The test tools have been unavailable for a while and we won't bring them back.

We will set the forums in the developer portal to read-only. We encourage developers to continue their conversations at StackOverflow with the tag 'netflixapi'. The existing forum posts will remain on the site for now in the form of an archive.

We will retire the OData catalog, effective on April 8, 2013.

Source: Netflix Developer Blog

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