Netflix and the Fall of Television | To the Max | 3

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After AT&T takes over Time Warner in 2018, the media company decides it's time to enter the streaming wars. They don’t have the brand recognition that Disney has, but they do have HBO, considered the most prestigious cable television on the market. But transforming a niche brand like HBO into a broad-based streaming service is a massive marketing challenge — made even harder by the Covid lockdowns. Meanwhile, the head of a low-brow cable empire has his eye on Warner Media as an acquisition.

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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.
0:12.9	It's June 2018 in New York City.
0:21.6	HBO CEO Richard Plepler strides onto the stage of a screening room in HBO headquarters.
0:30.6	He stares out at an audience full of HBO employees.
0:34.6	He can feel the nervous energy emanating off of them. Plupler shares some of that
0:40.1	anxiety. Nearly two years ago, in October 2016, AT&T announced its plan to purchase HBO's parent
0:47.0	company, Time Warner. Almost immediately, the Justice Department objected to the merger on
0:52.0	antitrust grounds, and for 20 months, the
0:55.1	sale has been in legal limbo. But five days ago, a federal judge approved the sale giving HBO
1:00.8	a new owner, and today, PLEPler is leading the first company-wide meeting with their new boss,
1:07.2	AT&T executive John Stanky. No one, including PLEPLAB, is sure how this acquisition is going to play out.
1:16.0	The entertainment business is a new industry for the telecom giant to take on,
1:19.6	and many at HBO aren't sure AT&T knows how to run a media company.
1:24.3	But hopefully, after today, Plepler and other executives will have a better read on their new boss.
1:31.7	Plupler thanks everyone for coming and lays out the plan for the meeting.
1:35.9	For the next hour, I'll be chatting about the future with our new leader, John Stanky.
1:39.8	And I want to assure you that there will be time for you to ask your questions, of which I'm sure there are many.
1:44.8	Please welcome John Stanky to the stage.
1:48.3	Stanky struts out.
1:49.8	At six foot five, Stanky towers over Plepler.
1:53.1	The two shake hands and then take their seats.
	...

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