Business Wars

On today's special interview episode, renowned media futurist Rich Greenfield returns to fill us in on the latest developments in the streaming wars and how these changes might impact viewers in the coming years. Greenfield is a media and tech analyst with BTIG who has been following the industry for decades.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It’s spring 2019, and the Mouse House is determined to challenge Netflix for streaming supremacy. Disney CEO Bob Iger draws gasps at an industry event when he announces the new Disney Plus streaming service will cost just seven bucks a month. Then the company drops another bombshell — it’s buying out Comcast’s stake in Hulu, the destination for edgy, adult fare, to expand its streaming empire. Now whatever content Disney makes, it’ll have a platform to host it.But Disney isn’t the only company eyeing Netflix’s crown. Apple, Comcast, Viacom, and WarnerMedia are all sharpening their knives. In the battle for eyeballs, anyone could emerge the victor.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

Netflix goes from being a streaming company to a movement in which consumers all over the world decide what to watch, and when and how they watch. The future that Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph envisioned two decades earlier has arrived. The unfettered reign of cable television has ended.In 2019, AT&T’s acquisition of HBO’s parent company Time Warner in 2019 throws HBO’s future into even more turmoil. In a post-Game of Thrones world, can the cable network survive? Or will Netflix’s march to domination be complete?Support us by supporting our sponsors!

Hollywood execs thought Netflix was crazy to give up advertising and spin off opportunities by letting viewers flop on a couch and watch a whole season of a show all at once. But Netflix knew it was onto something. All of their studies and focus groups revealed something new: viewers who binged content formed an emotional attachment to Netflix.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

We take a step back to explore how a little company called Home Box Office went from serving B-movies to 325 homes in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania to become the juggernaut that we know as HBO. In the process, HBO, became the standard by which all other cable companies would have to measure themselves -- after all, it’s not TV. It’s HBO.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

You know the expression “content is king”? Well it turns out, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s a hard-working algorithm that burrows into customer habits and viewing patterns. With that, Netflix had a clear upper hand on Blockbuster. That, and the fact that Netflix targeted this new “streaming” technology that in 2007, no one really believed in. Soon they were on top of the world. But it’s dangerous being on top. If you trip, you have a long way to fall.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

Thinking like your enemy is the best way to beat them, and during the war, Blockbuster tried every trick in the book to get inside Netflix. Sometimes they succeeded — sending “housewives” into warehouses as spies — and sometimes things didn’t go as planned. But when Blockbuster did deliver, they delivered big. They threw everything they had at Netflix, but the war raged on.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

After Hastings pleaded with Antioco to buy Blockbuster online, Antioco agreed to present Hasting’s proposal to the board. What he didn’t tell him was that he was pushing the board to reject the offer so Netflix would wither and die. Meanwhile, Netflix was struggling to gain legitimacy in Hollywood. Netflix quickly realized that before it could take on the Hollywood gods, it would have to slay Blockbuster.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

The way we watch is changing so rapidly that we’ve decided to revisit our very first and most popular Business War: Netflix versus Blockbuster. We’re re-airing an expanded eight-part series following Netflix’s battles against HBO and today’s new entrants into the Streaming Wars.It all started around 1997, with a guy named Marc Randolph and his mathematician friend, Reed Hastings. Randolph and Hastings knew they’d have to take on Blockbuster. But what they didn’t anticipate was that their business model would take on network television and eventually change the entire movie industry.This was an 8-year total war that left innumerable casualties in its wake: thousands of hollowed out buildings and economic losses in the billions.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

Electric. Diesel. Driverless. Automobile Magazine’s New York Bureau Chief, Jamie Kitman, joins to talk about the latest developments in the car industry and what’s next for Ferrari and Lamborghini.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It is 1997. For decades, Lamborghini has struggled to survive as a company, and to compete with its nemesis Ferrari. All that is about to change. Volkswagen buys Lambo and injects it with cash and bulletproof German engineering. For the first time ever, Lamborghini can finally compete with Ferrari with a full line of cars—and serious racing.The result is a new golden age of supercars, one that we are still living through today.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It’s 1970. At his factory in Italy, Ferruccio Lamborghini is desperate to build a car that can outdo his rival, Enzo Ferrari, whose Ferrari factory is just 20 miles away. With the help of genius designers and engineers, Lamborghini comes up with what many car fans still today call the most outrageous model ever to roll down a road.Throughout the decade and beyond, the Ferrari/Lamborghini rivalry spawns the fastest cars in the world, the coolest car movies, and more.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It’s the early 1960s. In Maranello, Italy, Enzo Ferrari has made a name for himself building the most exotic road cars in the world. But when a dissatisfied customer named Ferruccio Lamborghini shows up to complain about his Ferrari’s busted clutch, Enzo refuses to accept blame, accusing Lamborghini of not knowing how to drive. Lamborghini vows revenge.In 1964, Lamborghini launches its first model, kicking off a rivalry with Ferrari that makes for one of the hottest automotive stories of the 1960s.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

Bratz. Monster High. Funko. These are the toys that rule the roost in 2019. Veteran toy industry analyst Sean McGowan joins to discuss the big business of toys today, how Hasbro and Mattel can compete, and what’s going on with Lego.You can find new episodes of Business Wars, completely ad-free, only on Stitcher Premium. For a free month of Stitcher Premium, go to stitcherpremium.com/wondery and use promo code WONDERY.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

With the world plugging into the Internet, toys are under pressure. Kids are swapping plastic play for screen-based entertainment and both Mattel and Hasbro need to adapt. The question is: how?Mattel’s also finding out the hard way that Barbie’s reign as the queen of dolls is no longer secure. Challengers to her throne are emerging and the first strike against the dream doll comes not from Hasbro, but from within its own offices.You can find new episodes of Business Wars, completely ad-free, only on Stitcher Premium. For a free month of Stitcher Premium, go to stitcherpremium.com/wondery and use promo code WONDERY.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

A few months ago, Mattel’s revenues were just fifty million dollars behind Hasbro’s. But now that Hasbro’s swallowed Tonka—the classic maker of Nerf, Play-Doh, and Monopoly—Mattel is half a billion dollars behind, and CEO John Amerman isn’t happy about it.Ever since Hasbro turned British fashion doll Sindy into a Barbie lookalike, the two toymakers have been at war. Now Amerman is looking to make a couple strategic acquisitions: one to put Mattel back in pole position, and the other, to spite Hasbro.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It’s the early 1980s and things are not looking good for Hasbro. The company hasn’t had a hit since Hungry Hungry Hippos; its founding CEO Merrill Hassenfeld has just died; now Star Wars dolls have just about gobbled up the entire action figure market. Hasbro needs to deliver a toy capable of taking on the Star Wars dolls, or else the company risks losing its only source of stable income, the family pencil factory.But Hasbro’s not the only toymaker plotting to take on Star Wars. Three thousand miles away in Los Angeles, Mattel’s also preparing an assault on the action figure market. A line of fantastical action figures called The Masters of the Universe.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

Sizzlers, Mattel’s new motorized Hot Wheels, were supposed to be the top toy this Christmas. But sales have fizzled, leaving Mattel $30 million below target. For the last ten years, Mattel’s done exceptionally well by its investors, but now the toymaker is facing a stock price collapse. To keep up appearances, Mattel starts cooking its books—but the move may end up costing CEO Ruth Handler the company.Elsewhere in Toyland, Hasbro’s facing an uncertain future. Kids are turning their backs on G.I. Joe and the company’s short on cash. As its rivals rush towards an electronic future, Hasbro risks being left behind.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It’s the 1960s and Hasbro is struggling. The pencil manufacturer turned toymaker hasn’t had a major success since Mr. Potato Head hit the shelves in 1952, and it’s starting to lose money. If the company doesn’t act fast, it’ll be headed for bankruptcy in no time.Mattel’s “accessories sold separately” approach to Barbie has revolutionized the industry. Now Hasbro’s toymakers hope to replicate her success with a doll of their own—for boys. But first, they’ll have to get the green light from CEO Merrill Hassenfeld, who has one iron-clad rule about new toys: no dolls.Meanwhile, Mattel’s about to roll out a hot new boy-themed toy of its own that will cement the company’s status as the world’s top toymaker.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It’s the late 1940s and two small toymakers are taking their first uneasy steps. The names of these young hopefuls are Hasbro and Mattel. One’s an offshoot of a pencil manufacturer. The other a husband-and-wife garage start-up.But toy-mayking, they soon discover, is an unexpectedly cutthroat business. If either of these companies hopes to survive--let alone succeed--they’re going to need to get creative. Disrupting the embedded and experienced kingpins of Toyland, will require them to take chances on TV, potatoes, Mickey Mouse and one particularly risqué novelty doll from Germany.Support us by supporting our sponsors!