If they paid 1 penny for ESPN....They paid too much.
ESPN is a dead network channel whose time has come and gone....it's an antiquated platform for sports fan who is under 55 yrs old to follow their sports.
The average tune in time is less than 3 minutes.....simply due to the fact that you can get the sports you are only interested in with scores, highlights and video included immediately over the internet.
No reason to sit through 50 minutes of content that you are not interested in combined with commentary from "analysts" that range from race in America to the political state of White House.
ESPN has lost tens of Millions of viewers in the last 5 years ( google it )
It's no longer wanted or needed that's just the facts....it's dead!