ESPN is a perfect example of get woke go broke. They push politics so hard that they have turned off a large portion of their audience. This is easily documented by both their ratings and their subscription numbers.
For the majority of viewers sports are an escape from reality for a few hours. An enjoyable diversion that average people are willing to pay good money to partake in. Forcing race and gender politics down people’s throats is a major turn off for many, myself included.
I currently watch ESPN for CFB Games, NFL Games featuring my team, and the rare sporting events like The NCAA Wrestling, Lacrosse, or Hockey Tournaments which they broadcast. Not a fan of basketball, especially The NBA, so they have no appeal for me there.
As for their talking head shows, you couldn’t pay me to watch. I’m not alone in this sentiment either as the ratings on these programs are absolutely abysmal. ESPN is going down the same path that MTV went down decades earlier. They stopped being a music channel and started being a lifestyle channel. The only problem is it appealed to no one.
I get literally every channel that Comcast offers in my market and I honestly have no idea if MTV is one of them. Last I remember MTV showed movies and repeats of years old reality tv shows that they produced. I’m not sure if music is even discussed on music television anymore. At least it wasn’t last I remember it.
If not for the brand value of The NFL, CFB, and The NBA, ESPN would probably play movie reruns and shows with Steven A Smith yelling at some other wind bag about Colin Kapernick or BLM for 24 hours a day. Actual sports save them from themselves. The pandemic has given us a glimpse of what ESPN thinks is good programming when sports aren’t available. Scary stuff when left to their own devices.