It is only slowing because so many people have cut the cord already so the universe of people available to cut the cord is shrinking.
The only way cable truly stops the bleeding is to unbundle and make it a la carte, which would be catastrophic to ESPN, at a level where they would be selling office furniture from their Bristol facility in a yard sale. ESPN's total cave in the ESPN/Spectrum showdown in the fall shows how terrified ESPN is of cable getting unbundled. ESPN knows it can die slowly with people cutting the cord, or die quickly with cable unbundling. Think of the BTN as a mini ESPN that is a lot easier to unbundle than ESPN is.
On the content side, ESPN's survival is dependent on the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, along with most college conferences, not going direct to consumer themselves. Who wants to make that bet?
ESPN's very existence is the result of the weird revenue model that came from cable bundling, and ESPN making a few smart deals early in the cable era. That revenue model is approaching its end, and the next act for ESPN is to become a production company, which will generate a lot less revenue at a lot lower margin for ESPN's owners.
If the ESPN fanboys were right, and ESPN had a glorious future ahead of it, there would have been a stampede to Disney's door by private equity and strategics to buy it as soon as Iger signaled it was for sale in July 2023. Instead, nothing happened. Even though Iger likely has ESPN priced to move, any interested buyer knows the price will go down if they just wait. So they wait.
I know I am not alone in the schadenfreude of the demise of a company that was instrumental in UConn being on its current conference island. Karma is a mofo.