How to programmatically check whether a movie exists on netflix?
March 26, 2018 2:17 AM Subscribe
I have a spreadsheet with movie titles and release year. I'd like for each of them to determine whether they are available on netflix. How can I achieve this?
(I have moderate programming experience and would not shy away from implementing things manually if at all possible)
Bonus points if I can also create a netflix playlist / to-watch list from that spreadsheet as well.
Thanks!
(I have moderate programming experience and would not shy away from implementing things manually if at all possible)
Bonus points if I can also create a netflix playlist / to-watch list from that spreadsheet as well.
Thanks!
As far as I can make out, Netflix provided an API for developers to run searches like this - but stopped doing so in 2014. This article, written at that time, summarises the situation and names some of the limited number of developers who were able to continue to get data from Netflix. There are various sites - like JustWatch - that allow you to search for whether a particular title exists - for example https://www.justwatch.com/us/search?q=kill%20bill&providers=nfx (it exists) or https://www.justwatch.com/us/search?q=jaws&providers=nfx (it doesn't). But I don't believe there is a direct method for saying "Does this movie exist or not?" - so I guess you would have to use some kind of mechanism to make an inference on the basis of the length of response that you got to a particular search.
posted by rongorongo at 3:09 AM on March 26, 2018
posted by rongorongo at 3:09 AM on March 26, 2018
This guy uses Python to check against the site "Can I Stream It".
Here is something on Github about the "Can I Stream It" API. I hope that provides some help.
posted by mecran01 at 6:12 AM on March 26, 2018
Here is something on Github about the "Can I Stream It" API. I hope that provides some help.
posted by mecran01 at 6:12 AM on March 26, 2018
Be aware that Netflix continously changes what is available, so this is not a once-and-done proposition.
posted by scorpia22 at 6:36 AM on March 26, 2018
posted by scorpia22 at 6:36 AM on March 26, 2018
Best answer: Hey knz, I just made you a spreadsheet that checks https://flickmetrix.com/ (which happened to have an easy-to-consume JSON API) using a movie title and a year, and outputs if the movie is streaming on Netflix or not..!
Here's the publicly viewable spreadsheet.
MeMail me (this includes anybody who's interested in this) and I'll be happy to share it with you / give you full editing permissions, etc.!
Quick explanation: in Google Spreadsheets, I went into Tools -> Script editor, and created a very short script that fetches movie data from flickrmetrix -- specifically, if a movie (queried by title & year) is available for streaming on Netflix :-)
Cheers
(Re: creating a playlist out of this -- flickmetrix has the Netflix video ID, which could also be made to appear in the Google Spreadsheet. I'm not sure how to go from there to a playlist, but I guess that would be a first step)
posted by vert canard at 10:06 AM on March 26, 2018 [9 favorites]
Here's the publicly viewable spreadsheet.
MeMail me (this includes anybody who's interested in this) and I'll be happy to share it with you / give you full editing permissions, etc.!
Quick explanation: in Google Spreadsheets, I went into Tools -> Script editor, and created a very short script that fetches movie data from flickrmetrix -- specifically, if a movie (queried by title & year) is available for streaming on Netflix :-)
Cheers
(Re: creating a playlist out of this -- flickmetrix has the Netflix video ID, which could also be made to appear in the Google Spreadsheet. I'm not sure how to go from there to a playlist, but I guess that would be a first step)
posted by vert canard at 10:06 AM on March 26, 2018 [9 favorites]
Tangentially, I assume you are doing this because you are evaluating whether Netflix will be worth it for you. I looked at this circa 2003, taking my somewhat esoteric movie list and checking it against Netflix availability, and They. Had. Everything. Holy crap.
However, that was (and is) their DVD selection. Their streaming selection is far more limited. We are inevitably disappointed in it, and are thankful for the continuing DVD service.
posted by intermod at 10:27 PM on March 26, 2018
However, that was (and is) their DVD selection. Their streaming selection is far more limited. We are inevitably disappointed in it, and are thankful for the continuing DVD service.
posted by intermod at 10:27 PM on March 26, 2018
Response by poster:
But thanks to @vert_canard's tool I have also found out that Amazon Video does have much more. This surprises me. I'll investigate more.
Thanks everyone!
posted by knz at 11:09 PM on March 26, 2018
@intermod I assume you are doing this because you are evaluating whether Netflix will be worth it for you. I looked at this circa 2003, taking my somewhat esoteric movie list and checking it against Netflix availability, and They. Had. Everything.More to make a point / prove that they are woefully inadequate for my list. Probably less than 20% on there.
But thanks to @vert_canard's tool I have also found out that Amazon Video does have much more. This surprises me. I'll investigate more.
Thanks everyone!
posted by knz at 11:09 PM on March 26, 2018
An answer here indicates that Netflix had (at the time when the guy did his analysis about 3 years ago) about 4,500 movies available in the US and maybe 2,500 available for the UK. This article indicates that Amazon has about 4 times as many titles.
Apparently - about 140,000 movies have been made - so purely on a statistical basis there is about a 4% chance that Netflix has a match - and maybe 15% that it is there on Amazon.
Of course - it is the quality, rather than the quantity of the selection that is important - and for most people "quality" stands for a mixture of what has come out recently, what has been generally reviewed - what closely matches their particular tastes and what they haven't already seen - all criteria which narrow down that 140K total considerably.
One difference is that Amazon provides a mechanism of watching a far larger set of movies that are not within its core selection - in return for a supplementary fee. Netflix is basically trying to provide its members with the best bang for their buck given licensing costs, availability and their own interested. Amazon is sort of doing this too - but it is also providing a gateway to a larger market. A final consideration: titles which are available for free streaming on one platform are rarely available on the other at the same time (at least in my experience).
posted by rongorongo at 5:52 AM on March 28, 2018
Apparently - about 140,000 movies have been made - so purely on a statistical basis there is about a 4% chance that Netflix has a match - and maybe 15% that it is there on Amazon.
Of course - it is the quality, rather than the quantity of the selection that is important - and for most people "quality" stands for a mixture of what has come out recently, what has been generally reviewed - what closely matches their particular tastes and what they haven't already seen - all criteria which narrow down that 140K total considerably.
One difference is that Amazon provides a mechanism of watching a far larger set of movies that are not within its core selection - in return for a supplementary fee. Netflix is basically trying to provide its members with the best bang for their buck given licensing costs, availability and their own interested. Amazon is sort of doing this too - but it is also providing a gateway to a larger market. A final consideration: titles which are available for free streaming on one platform are rarely available on the other at the same time (at least in my experience).
posted by rongorongo at 5:52 AM on March 28, 2018
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posted by knz at 2:21 AM on March 26, 2018