Basically, and I'm not even really a fan of that show despite liking Jemele Hill a lot.
I should also say that when I say "politics," I really mean the modern day version where we debate the humanity of people.
I'm not a fan of the show whatsoever but it's not because of the stupid racist reasons people spew on twitter, it's because the show isn't for me. It's not targeted at my demographic. And like other shows that aren't targeted for me, I just ignore them. But since espn makes something in prime time that isn't meant for the white male adult demo, it's because of "politics" and "political correctness" not the fact that someone clearly is watching and enjoys this show.
They paid an assload of money for all of that live content though. Way more than they'd pay these days now that their subscriber numbers are going down.
ESPN isn't going under anytime soon, but they have a ton of bad deals on their plate that they made in the glory days, especially with their college content.
They did overpay but things like college football playoff is bringing in tons of viewers and when they finally do start serving ads online, it will really help.
No ESPN isn't what it once was. But they're in better shape than NBC Sports and Fox Sports because they have a much wider content portfolio. They're getting rid of outrageous contracts for talking heads because they overpaid for this content. That's fine by me, I only tune in to espn for actual sports content.
Fox Sports is trying to compete with ESPN by buying up all of their expired talent with massive contracts and airing shows that get worse ratings than reruns of Gunsmoke.
So to say that ESPN isn't doing as well as it once did is correct. To act like they are doomed or are going to fail is an oversimplistic and hyperbolic conclusion, especially when you look at the fact that they have several competitors that are much more fucked than they are long term.