It's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in from management. These projects are great for culture.
Netflix seems like a great company to work for. Recommend reading Reed Hasting's presentation on their culture: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664
And for having the "top talent" they have little to show for it on the technical side