RUMINT indicates native features that Apple offers can be enabled/disabled in NFLX apps via a feature flag.
Maybe devops engineer fat fingered it and enabled it by accident. Doesn’t break anything besides make the C-suite cry. So would make sense as to why there were no red flags, press releases or anything like that.
As a consumer, I hate using NFLX or Paramount, or even Amazon Prime UI. As much as I hate Apple, I do admit the aggregated view is nice. I can search for whatever show and presents me with options. If I am subscribed to the service it’s locked behind, then it opens the right app, and content starts playing.
My dream is that all them offer catalogus and/or video via API.
You have one global app, and you add the services you have (oauth link) and the moment you add a service their api will be added and you will get updates etc.
When you click 'play' it will simply grab the video from one of the services you have and there you go.
If this was a thing, I would start to think about some subscriptions again.
Till then, watching content in a legit way is simply so much more complicated then alternatives ;P
Sadly that goes against competition's mentality to try and crush all others. They don't want to share the limelight, even if they may in fact be the most profitable move. That's a small part of why everyone started pulling out of Netflix; It was pretty close to a monopoly and other companies didn't want to pay in.
Alternative methods rely on sacrificing convinience for time setting up and maintaining your own pipeline. So (perhaps luckily), it will always be a niche solution
I'd be curious as to what had happened internally here.