Percentage of people who would choose not to have ESPN as part of their cable bundle: 54% (via Reuters/Ipsos)

Let's also not forget ESPN is not just one channel. When you consider how many programs they have, of course it's going to be worth more than a typical cable channel. It makes sense people don't like some of the talking heads and the repetitive stories. But the problem with bitching about this stuff is you're full of shit because you keep watching. ESPN doesn't make more money talking about LeBron and Manziel and Tebow because their teams and agents are slipping them cash, THE PEOPLE EAT THAT SHIT UP. That's why it's around non stop, you love to hate it as much as you love consuming it.

If the people stopped watching when LeBron was on the screen, ESPN would show something else, but guess what, you see it on the PTI and SC scrawls and you wait and watch it.

The NFL draft gets higher ratings each year than the NHL and sometimes NBA playoffs, (the ESPN not nfl network broadcast). It's the fun Internet thing to do to hate on ESPN but God help us if it went away and we were stuck with NBCSN and Fox Sports 1 having Monday Night Football, the NBA, the nfl and NBA drafts, The masters, Sunday night baseball and lose original programming like ATH and PTI. If you don't like it don't watch it, but let's not act like they haven't made sports more accessible to the fan than any other entity in media history.

Streaming and Netflix for everything sounds great to you all right now, but if you really get what you want and cable does, the exact same issues that plagued cable will simply follow it online. The money follows the advertisers, when their cable pool of cash runs out, the streaming services will welcome them with open arms and wallets.

/r/television Thread Parent Link - reuters.com