Business Wars

It’s the 1980s and Miller’s glory days are over. Drinkers are deserting High Life and Anheuser-Busch is about to launch a $50 million attack on Miller Lite.With the pressure mounting, Miller hunts for a way to revive its momentum. It’s a search that see the company travel to Japan, disguise itself as a microbrewery, and go head hunting.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It’s the late 1970s and Miller is hurtling towards the top of the brewing industry on the back of High Life and Lite. Anheuser-Busch’s new leader August Busch III knows he must act fast to stop the threat.But before he can do that there’s internal problems that need fixing. A strike has shut down the company’s breweries and threatening to leave the business disunited and demoralized at the worst possible moment.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

Come the early 1970s, Miller has a new owner: tobacco giant Philip Morris. Armed with the Marlboro maker’s millions and marketing skills, Miller is about to shake up the beer business with a campaign targeting blue-collar workers thirsty for a cold pint...or three.But at Anheuser-Busch, a generational rift is brewing — one that could have major repercussions for the beer business. The tensions between conservative-minded CEO Gussie Busch and his forward-thinking son and heir August Busch III are fast approaching the breaking point.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

By 1933 Prohibition is over, and that means the race is on to dominate a beer market that’s been reset. Under the leadership of Anheuser-Busch heir Gussie Busch, the company is out to reclaim the beer throne. But there’s a challenger for the crown — Milwaukee’s top brewery, Schlitz.But as these two giants lock horns in the fight for dominance, Miller Brewing is struggling to realize its dream of becoming a major league brewer. And it won’t sit by on the sidelines.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

It’s 1893 and Chicago is about to host The World’s Columbian Exposition. It’s going to be the biggest show the world’s ever seen, and that means it’s time for Adolphus Busch to shine.He’s the owner of Budweiser brewery Anheuser-Busch and the most flamboyant beer baron of the Gilded Age. Busch is determined to use the show to overshadow and outspend his nemesis, Captain Pabst, the owner of America’s number-one brewery.But there’s a distraction he’s got to deal with first. A small-time brewer from Milwaukee called Miller has just launched a rival beer. Its name? Budweiser.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

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!