Netflix doesn't want mechanical licensing because they would have to reveal viewership numbers and for some reason they treat that like a big secret.

Apart from giving a better negotiation position, viewership numbers tell you what people want to watch.

If you (think you) know what people want to watch it becomes easy to cheaply produce new content guaranteed to sell.

This is almost certainly the nexus for much of the original content coming out of Netflix.

Because it is a huge secret. It lets them negotiate for content with a much more accurate price than even the producers.

Which they wouldn't have to do with mechanical licensing right?