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Yup. I cache the API results for 7 days with a random chance of re-poll so I hopefully will notice when new releases happen.

As for the parents, yeah, sorry :( I'm doing a match on the netflix title. I'll try to suck more data out of IMDB and make sure it is the correct movie.

I'll put an expiry date column, good idea.

It's not to save costs on licensing. It's because those titles are going in and out of licensing 'windows' and Netflix isn't allowed to offer them.

Isn't the length of those windows determined by what Netflix is willing to pay? Or do the content owners restrict it?

Content owners restrict it, for example if a movie is about to be shown on television it will disappear from NetFlix's instant streaming service a week or two beforehand and re-appear a month or so afterwards.

If you use Twitter, you can follow @queuenoodle (http://twitter.com/#!/queuenoodle). It'll let you know when titles are expiring about a week in advance.