For the first time since its beginning, ESPN has to take a hard look at long-term survival in a changing media climate.
Dwindling audience. Skyrocketing Costs. Loss of revenue. Uncertain future.
Not exactly the kind of problems that the leaders of the most powerful sports network are used to dealing with. But reality - in the form of financial setbacks - are encroaching on the media mountaintop that ESPN has claimed as its own for almost three decades.
It feels as if ESPN has been printing money out of Bristol forever, except now their revenue streams are beginning to show some wear and tear.