I’m not a math expert, but if you’re paying $6 billion a year in rights fees and you only bring in $4 billion in subscriber revenue, that’s not good. Add on top of that that advertising, which represents around a quarter of ESPN’s revenue, would plummet as well. Hell, it’s already happening. ESPN had to make up for ratings shortfalls with this year’s playoffs.
via Only 6% of Consumers Would Pay $20 a Month For ESPN – Outkick the Coverage.
Indeed, it’s hard to come to any conclusion other than this one: ESPN is a dead company walking