[jfman]

Indeed, ESPN lacked a business model as a standalone subscription after the loss of Premiership rights and it became more cost effective to sell up to BT and sign a content deal.

You can’t blame them, it was quite rational to smoothly exit the market at that time (almost as smoothly as their entry post Setanta collapse). May have even saw modest profits from the whole stint.

At the end of the day these business are investments and if there’s no sign of returns someone will eventually pull the plug.