Binge Times: Inside Hollywood's Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix – A Definitive Account of Streaming Supremacy and Corporate Disruption

by Dade Hayes, Dawn Chmielewski

The first comprehensive account of the biggest wake-up call in the history of the entertainment the pivot to streaming. Go inside a disparate group of media and tech companies -- Disney, Apple, AT&T/WarnerMedia, Comcast/NBCUniversal and well-funded startup Quibi - as they scramble to mount multi-billion-dollar challenges to Netflix.

After spotting Netflix and the deep-pocketed Amazon Prime Video a decade's head start, rivals from the tech and start-up realm (Apple, Quibi) and traditional media (Disney, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal) all decided to move mountains to enter the streaming game. At a cost of billions, each went after their own piece of the market, launching five new services in a seven-month span. And just as the derby was heating up, the coronavirus pandemic arrived, a black-swan event bringing short-term benefits but also stiff challenges.

The battle for streaming supremacy may end up having more than one winner, but the cost and disruption to decades-old business models have also produced a lot of losers. Binge Times reveals the true costs of the vision quest as companies are turned inside-out and repeatedly redraw their org charts and strategic plans. Stretching from Silicon Valley to Hollywood to Wall Street, it is a mesmerizing, character-rich tale of hubris and ambition, as the fate of a century-old industry hangs in the balance.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology, Audiobook, Tv, Media Tie In, Economics

361 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 19, 2022

About the author

Dade Hayes is the business editor at Deadline. Along with two previous books about entertainment, he has written for the New York Times, Variety, and the podcast Business Wars. He lives in Larchmont, New York.

Reviews

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a good first history of the streaming wars if not particularly ground breaking and I’d recommend it for a backgrounder on an extraordinary period of time. Unfortunately for the authors it was written in the middle of its own subject and published just when everything radically changed. The book’s epilogue even refers to Netflix as remaining the Alpha and Omega of the streamers (apparently proven by the popularity of Squid Game) while dismissing Apple’s offerings as “fuzzy” and no more privileged than its cloud storage or fitness products. Now Netflix’s dominance is well and truly in question (with covid having ‘hid’ its true status last year) and Apple is receiving unanimous praise as the stand-out streamer with an extraordinary run of shows (with analysts questioning why can’t Netflix do that?). Was this observable when the book was written? I’d argue absolutely. For any tv buff Netflix’s status as the worst of the streamers has been evident since at least early 2021 - Squid Game was clearly the exception that proved the rule. Apple’s strong and unique curation was arguably observable from the get go (despite the general dismissiveness of the industry press at the time) and I’d say it had clearly risen above Netflix and other streamers (excluding hbo) in the quality stakes by mid-2021. For Wall St and industry reporters who may not watch that much tv, quality is quickly overlooked in favour of IP, viewer stats and giant subscriber bases. But it is a sign of problems that will catch up in the long term and the dire quality of Netflix’s content was a clear indication its brand was in real trouble. The book touches lightly on some of this stuff (I particularly like an NBC exec quote about Netflix feeling ‘like a casino, there’s no sense of time or place’) but never sees it as a serious problem and in no way predicts what was to happen days after the book was published (the previous drops in subs are dismissed as bumps on the road). There are some good production stories here - I like the glimpse into Apple’s hands-on creative process despite the tech giant’s notorious secrecy - but the definitive book on streaming is obviously still to be written.

[Stetson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in the wake of the catastrophic finish to HBO's Westworld series. As a somewhat conventional genre series, it was never going to compete with the likes of The Wire as arguably a work of high art - or at least competitive with the novel as a vehicle for narrative realism and characterological development - but it was doing something compelling, taking the content of what other would be a genre novel for adults and formatting it for the televisual medium. Could this perhaps be elevating the consumption of the narrative arts in some way? Could this make narrative art commercially viable? I thought we could tentatively answer yes to both those questions at the time. Now, I'm much less sanguine.

So I picked up this book to get a deeper sense of the status of the streaming wars and what the likely outcome would be. Would the prestige/auteur model flourish in the streaming era like there were hints of or would everything settle at the lowest common denominator or quality be sacrificed due to factors in the business environment? It has unfortunately been more of the latter, which anyone with a sense of the history of art as a commercial venture should have bet on.

Why did things go bad for TV as narrative art? Well, my takeaway is that everyone involved was chasing Netflix in a thoughtless way (except perhaps Apple who is a very distinct position), and the fierce competition to take Netflix down devalued televisual entertainment. Smartphone based media and the way that platform has shaped tastes has played a role as well, but this is not explored in the book.

The history provided is basic but comprehensive. It is a real work of business journalism, which doesn't often make for the most entertaining reading, but readers will be able to get a real understanding of the pivotal decision-maker and what has been driving streaming.

[Susan Tunis · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was right up my alley. I studied streaming services and the changing telecom ecosystem for my senior thesis, and was editing right up until it was submitted at the end of 2019. So, I feel their pains of constantly editing up til publishing.

I found the history and business breakdown for many of the top contenders in the streaming wars to be very interesting. It was interesting to read about their years of plotting, the mergers to build the best library of media for their consumers, and the acquisitions and contract agreements while they tried to outdo Netflix, or at least get a peg closer. Of course, since a lot of these debuts took place from 2019 through 2021, I found it interesting how much Covid did and did not help or hurt many services.

I'm not great at writing interesting reviews, but for someone who has kept up with streaming and how continues to transform media, I really enjoyed this book.

[Jarrett Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A readable history of Hollywood’s rush to streaming. Because I’ve followed this story pretty closely over the years, and because so much has changed just in the few months since this was published (see Netflix doing the unthinkable by adding an ad-supported version and Disney+ struggling to such an extent Bob Iger unseated his replacement Bob Chapek), it may already feel outdated to some.

[Bright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another grad class read — not my favorite, didn’t peak my interest as much as other books have, but it is still a very informational read on the competitiveness of the streaming services market. Emphasis on how powerful Netflix & Amazon are in comparison to the others.

[Ed Carmichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you ever wanted to know about how the streaming business works.

[Sonya Dutta Choudhury · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been looking forward to reading Binge Times: Inside Hollywood's Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix for the last few months, ever since I saw it all over the bookstores in New York.

When I finally got to it, on audio, I was disappointed.

It is not what I expected - I mean you have Hollywood and streaming services, entertainment and tech and larger than life figures taking sides, all the ingredients for a sizzling pot boiler.

The reportage is competent and there are occasional flashes of storytelling, like the description of John Stankey, the new HBO head appointed after HBO's acquisition by AT & T.

But somehow the narrative structure doesn't work, there is a chapter each for the major broadcasters, there are some chapters where they all come together; it's a little all over the place with no strong threads in terms of central characters or events to hold it in place.

I found No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea and The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company way better.

The subject of film and streaming and the broadcasting world is fascinating - would love to read some more on it though - any recommendations?

[Zach Koenig · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a high-frequency consumer of film and TV, a book like this was immediately interesting to me--especially having grown up in the age of cable TV and witnessing the entire transformation to a largely streaming-based model. While there is certainly a lot of interesting and informative nuggets in "Binge Time", I also discovered that it largely focuses on the companies, high-level CEOs, and corporate mergers behind it all rather than the content--a fact that may somewhat color your reading experience.

When I got to the end of "Binge Times" and discovered that one of the authors--Dade Hayes--has ties to Deadline, I immediately understood why the book was structured like it was. This isn't an overview of the streaming timeline, nor is it a content-focused tome. Instead, it is far more concerned with the down-and-dirty corporate activities that produced the current atmosphere. In other words, a lot of "inside baseball" that is probably better suited to Hollywood insiders or college-level classes on media history.

I can't really knock "Bine Times" for being a "bad" book because it truly is a pretty comprehensive history of how streaming was born/expanded. Hence the 3-star ranking. But the fact that it does so from such a corporate lens makes it a bit difficult to wade through for those who may care more about the overview/content of the streaming services and less about how they were built brick-by-brick.

[Harold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Binge Times details the streaming wars through 2021, covering the debut of the major streaming services. While dropping plenty of names along the way, the book winds through the various services, occasionally doubling back and repeating itself — have I seen this episode before or does it only start with a recap??

The book is pretty comprehensive, but also pretty surface. We understand that Disney, WB, Amazon and Apple entered the streaming wars — the former two almost in a bet the company fashion — but we don’t really understand why. Yes it is the future, but why is it a good economic investment for these companies. Apple and Amazon certainly didn’t need to start streaming services. WB and Disney, on the other hand, are in the content creation business and need to take advantage of all outlets, but what exactly justified this much investment at this time. Was it just the pandemic? Was it just because the future beckoned, without a serious analysis of alternatives and other markets. Or did the authors just skip that part, and serve the bun without the meat.

Read this book for the what. The why will be the sequel.

[Matthew Golden · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time. This goes through one of my favorite time periods. I’m not sure people who watch TV these days appreciate just what has happened over the last 15 years. The journey to go from where we were when I was a child to where we are now is incredible. Growing up, I remember going to family video. I also remember all of the streaming options for the cable packages. I tried them all.

2009-2021 is one of the most interesting journeys that the entertainment world has ever been on. This book was one of the best looks at a very interesting time in Hollywood.

I’m interested in seeing where we are in 25 years. I think we eventually will have Amazon, Apple, Google, leading the way in broadcasting news, sports, and entertainment. They have too much money and they’ve shown a willingness to dip their toes into the stuff. I will be very interested in seeing how Netflix survives. I think at some point, they have to dip their toes into live sports as well. Or news or something else. They have shown a willingness to try stuff and adapt.

Go read this book now if you love the tech world or your streaming apps.

[Michael Jolls · Rating 4 out of 5]

A frustrating history to read about as the ending was inevitable, and in some ways, not quite finished yet as the industry (and consumer) has still not completely adjusted to a theatrical vs. home distribution structure. That said, "Binge Times" presents a good retrospective in understanding how Netflix acquired their influence throughout the 2000s and into the start of the 2010s. The book is indirectly more about the COVID-19 pandemic wrecking Hollywood's attempt to transition into the streaming era by expediting it. This is what makes "Binge Times"'s narrative oddly frustrating because the modern reader knows that all the effort, money, thought and negotiations put into the various streaming services (Disney +, Apple TV, HBO Max), which is what the bulk of the book is about, are going to blow up in the character's faces in due time as 2019 turns to 2020. The final segment of the “Binge Times”, 2020 and 2021 are the best parts that I wish were longer because you see the studios and companies have to deal with the mess their in, something that didn’t really get solved until after the book was published.

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

For Hollywood business/industry enthousiasts, this book gives a good amount of inside info about the machinations behind the scenes of a period of massive change and how the big studios are managing the shift towards streaming, and dealing with the pandemic on top of that.

It is, however, too much all over the place. We move quickly and freely from Disney to Amazon to Apple to Youtube to Warner and back again to Disney. It sometimes sidesteps into unneccesary side stories, and feels at times disjointed even in its main narrative. Also, the book ends while the streaming wars are still very much happening. It purports that Netflix might be the big winner in the end, while shortly after the books release, Netflix’s slump began with a downturn in the stock and the announcement of ads and password sharing measures.

If you have a interest into this industry, the book might be interesting. But it is too disjointed, even if it were telling the full story. I’d say wait a couple years when another book is released that captures the full breadth of the streaming wars.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book except toward the end. It seemed to lose its narrative style... or it changed as if the authors were trying to finish up. Nevertheless, the vast majority of this book was terrific for this type of subject... that is business history. Although the book does mention celebrities from time to time, it is mostly to illustrate how business executives played up to celebrities or hired them to forward their business plans. Unlike the other book I read recently, "Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco", I got plenty of context/history, a good feel for the personalities and some analysis on what it all might mean to each person involved. (Actually, in "Barbarians at the Gate" I had a real good feel for the personalities and some of the background, but not enough.)

I'd gladly read this book again.

[Scott Budman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific deep dive into the world of streaming .. perfectly timed for both a pamndemic, where we leaned on streaming media companies (Netflix, Disney, Hulu, HBOMax, Peacock, etc etc), and the much-written about "Streaming Wars," where we, as consumers, have benefitted from an avalanche of contect pumped into our homes and onto our devices.
I've long been a fan of Dawn Chmielewski's reporting; she and Dade Hayes clearly went deep into the culture, controversy, and companies involved here, taking us to many premieres, investor events, and boardroom meetings.
The book gets really detailed, with entire chapters on the companies and trends involved. Want to read about how "Game of Thrones" got greenlit? Or how Disney ultimately hauled in more subscribers than Netflix? It's all here, and more.
A great read, where you'll learn a lot.

[Andrew Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of the rise of Netflix and attempts by a variety of other companies (ATT Time Warner, Disney, Comcast/NBC, etc) to grab a piece of the streaming pie. I honestly thought that this book would suffer from its inability to keep up with the fast moving streaming industry, but it was surprisingly up-to-date. Maybe the only thing that could be seen as dated is the idea of that NetFlix is the 800 lb gorilla with the best strategy and the best tech, thoughts that are being questioned with Netflix's recent earning miss and industry articles claiming that Netflix's strategy does not position them well for the future. Still, its an interesting tale of business strategy in the face of industry revolution.

[Divyesh Sheth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a recent history of streaming wars going on around us. Author provides a comprehensive guide on rise of Netflix, how its rivals underestimated and ignored it until it was too late and how they fought back (some successfully and some not) and catalogs how Disney, Apple, Comcast, Amazon and few other players in the streaming wars saw the Netflix threat and how the responded to build their own services. This is a must read guide to understand how the current streaming landscape evolved.

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) This work looks at the rise of the streaming services, with Netflix among the leaders, and how they grew into a movie producing force that rivaled the classic Hollywood movie release/production system. The book is really great as discussing the history and impact of the various streaming options, from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. It doesn't quite cover the whole Hollywood vs. Streaming, nor does is quite make a call as to "winners" or "losers". Still, a good overall reference/backstory for how streaming got into the American entertainment game.

[Herzog · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a bit skeptical about reading this book because this is such a fast moving topic, but the authors were more than up to the challenge. It gives a great inside story of the streaming players and, in particular, the personalities driving them. It's current right up to Squid Games though not to the loss of subscribers by Netflix. As a customer of these services, it was interesting to get the insight of these authors.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting subject matter conveyed in a pretty dry and convoluted way. There is way too much jumping around and leaving events hanging to come back to them at a random time later. I would have preferred either the authors cover the whole history of one company at a time or chronically cover the industry one year at a time. In my opinion this would make the events easier to keep track of and really show how rapidly all of these changes have been.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) Rather choppy and disjointed account of the streaming wars of the last few years. Not exactly chronological and not exactly thematic. I gleaned some interesting stuff here but too much is clotted up with lots of corporate folderol that I had a hard time following. The stuff about content is the most interesting.

[Andrew Shaffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading for anyone interested in a career in Hollywood. Already somewhat outdated only 45 days after release, but still a decent history of the streaming industry. Some repetition (exact passages and quotes, or maybe I was just getting deja vu since all the companies faced similar challenges).

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating if occasionally dry account of the digital disruption caused by streaming. As a cord cutter, this was personally interesting. Reading about how these streamers rose and fall was great as went into extremely recent history. The chapters on Quibi in particular really pop. This may end up being a better text book in the end but worth a look if the subject interests you.

[Jason Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was originally curious how stories (specifically television shows and movies) are now created and consumed considering everything is able to be streamed and binged. Then I found this book. If you’re mildly curious about how and why there seems to be an endless amount of different streaming services, and the different players that have had a part in the streaming wars, this book might be worth your time.

[Emanuele Gemelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting per se, but not well written book to be honest; too many repetitions and not very clear structure. Furthermore, Amazon is strangely touched very lightly and w/o the same amount of depth than other streamers

[Sarah Van Valkenburgh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Extremely well researched and fascinating information, although the organization and timeline of the chapters became a bit confusing. If only it was published a few months later to capture Netflix’s recent news! Published right before their stock began to free fall.

[Han-Ching Joyce Chiu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Books like this through no fault of its own comes with a “use by” date. It’s been 3 years+ since it’s released. And the landscape has evolved.

It’s now an interesting history but no longer quit3 as relevant anymore.

[Robyn Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not a bad book, mostly didn't like it because of how irrelevant what it writes about is.

[Nathan Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good summary of the last few years but little original analysis