"What do I get for my money with ESPN now? Again, shoddy camerawork, broadcast crews Zooming into games from behind a f—king Wendy’s, and Stephen A. making a gasface behind a graphic that says, “Patrick Mahomes Already the GOAT?” Now I’m gonna get 500% more Sweet Action content added to that mess. So it’s worth asking if ESPN is even a sports company anymore and not just a big, directionless pile of slop whose only purpose is to seek out any financial life raft within eyeshot.
That’s not a dramatic question, because when you try to bring in revenue from every possible source, and you aren’t choosy about it, your core product reflects those efforts. ESPN is now a gambling outfit, a cable-news circle jerk, a cross-promotional vehicle for Disney Plus (which is about to jack up its own subscription rate by $3), and an access journalism factory. The “sports” part grows less discernible by the day. For this, Iger is hoping I’m willing to pay an exorbitant cable bill, or pay for a stand-alone ESPN streaming service, already in the offing, for as much as $50 a month."