Billions of dollars in profits flowed off ESPN each year, enabling all of Disney to flourish. It was the crown jewel of the company, a profit spigot, the Titanic of the cable fleet.

But an iceberg loomed ahead.

And almost no one saw it coming.

The era of cable and satellite cord cutting began in the fall of 2014.

[This is a very long read, but well worth the time. Travis calls this fight between Disney (ESPN’s parent) and Charter/Spectrum “an extinction level event” for sports entertainment, and he’s right — if Disney doesn’t wise up. However, it may be too late for that because of the structural reasons Travis lays out. ESPN has overbought and overcommitted to sports rights for the next decade, and Disney’s losing too much money elsewhere to cover those bets any longer. The result may well be the collapse of the sports-rights market, and with it all of those high-dollar contracts that teams can afford to pay out. — Ed]