nelsonmuntz
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ESPN is dying for a many reasons, none of them have to do with major college sports not being profitable (in fact, without college sports ESPN would probably already be dead).
Major college sports will continue to be a very profitable business because of the amount of eyeballs they draw. There is a reason why the B1G just signed a media deal that will pay their schools $100 million per year very soon.
Maybe it won’t be Disney / ESPN in a decade, but someone will continue to air major college sports and profit immensely. Unless there is a major culture shift away from wanting to watch (and bet on) college sports in the US, which is doubtful.
If you are interested in this topic, you should dig in on what cutting the cord means for ESPN and a lot of the companies that were dependent on carriage fees. It is transforming every aspect of entertainment, including sports. ESPN got massive carriage fees from ever cable subscriber whether they watched ESPN or not, which gave it enormous power in the market and let it essentially pick winners. The DTC model is completely different, and ESPN has no competitive advantage in that model because cable channel real estate won't matter.
This is one of the more interesting, real-time industry transformations we may see in our lifetime. Massive media companies are scrambling to adjust to a revenue model that is completely different than the one they have built their businesses around. There are going to be some huge winners, like Netflix, which is practically printing money, and others are going to faceplant trying to make the transition. Disney/Hulu/ESPN is near the top of the "at risk" companies on that list.
There is a thread on streaming on the Realignment Board.