Netflix and the Fall of Television | The Mouse Strikes Back | 2

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After Netflix poaches Shonda Rimes, one of the most successful television producers on ABC, a Disney-owned network, Disney decides it can’t just sit back and let Netflix keep eating into their market share. Disney CEO Bob Iger decides that Disney is going to launch its own streaming service, Disney+, in 2019. With its strong brand loyalty and vast library of content, Disney seems poised to give Netflix a run for its money. But upending its entire business model is complicated and a messy leadership transition adds even more drama to Disney’s attempt to dominate streaming.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderly Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of Business Wars, Netflix, and the fall of television early and ad-free right now.
0:07.4	Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:12.8	It's November 12, 2019 in Burbank, California, Disney headquarters.
0:25.3	Kevin Mayer marches into the IT department, his brow, furrowed.
0:29.6	He's the chairman of Disney's direct-to-consumer services.
0:32.9	Mayors barely cross the threshold before he starts demanding answers.
0:36.7	What the hell is going on?
0:38.8	Every head in the room turns away from the computer monitors and stares at him, but no one
0:43.4	needs to ask what he's referring to.
0:45.6	Today is what's been dubbed D-Day, the launch of Disney Plus.
0:49.4	Now it's late morning.
0:51.2	The service has been live since midnight Pacific time.
0:55.7	It's not the company's first foray into streaming. Disney has been a part owner of Hulu since 2009. They also operate ESPN Plus,
1:02.6	the streaming version of their sports cable network. But those are both relatively small endeavors.
1:09.0	Disney Plus is different. It's launching with a library of 500 feature
1:13.5	films and 7,500 episodes of television and a new slate of high-budget original programming,
1:19.8	and it's Disney's big bet in taking on Netflix. They've invested $3 billion into building
1:26.5	the service, and they've rolled out a massive coordinated
1:29.2	marketing campaign over the past month.
1:31.8	It's all been building toward today, launch day.
1:35.5	And right now, their worst fears have come true.
1:39.5	Disney Plus is not working.
	...

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