By Danny Whitford
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ESPN's ascent to juggernaut status in sports media may have reached its pinnacle and begun its descent.

Demographic, technological and competitive forces are eating away at the network's core revenues, undermining the expensive business strategy to which it has wed itself.

The unfavorable trend resulting from developments it failed to foresee may be exacerbated by the Connecticut-based network's journalistic missteps and its puzzling forays into perceived advocacy of contentious political, cultural and religious positions.

Considering the pressure it faces from factors beyond its direct control, the obvious question is why ESPN would complicate its task by advancing controversial on-air stances sure to grate on the sensitivities of key segments of an audience it desperately needs to retain.

More than three million ESPN subscribers have evaporated as viewers, especially coveted younger ones, have ditched cable bundles for à la carte alternatives. Online packages from Sling, Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime and other providers have destabilized the model that allowed bloated cable TV bundles to exist.

ESPN has become addicted to the $6 cut it gets from your cable TV payment each month, an extra toll you pay even if you don't watch the network. Viewers, primarily Millennials, are unplugging the cord and plugging in to the Internet.

The stock price of ESPN parent company Disney plummeted in recent months as this new reality splashed cold water in the face of previously snoozing investors. The result has been immense pressure from Disney's board room for its cash cow to get its financial affairs back on track.

Budget cuts and layoffs are in the works as the suits in Bristol scramble to cover the billions of dollars in bets they made in the sports content licensing casino. Disney is reported to have mandated that $350 million be slashed from planned expenditures by the network over the next two years.

The licensing bets are locked in, so the cuts must come from elsewhere. On the heels of the ousters of high-profile personalities Bill Simmons, Keith Olbermann, Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock, hundreds of rank and file staffers are expected to be cut loose from their jobs.

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Some reports indicate the money crunch at the self-proclaimed World Wide Leader in Sports is so intense that play-by-play announcers for some events will operate from the studio instead of traveling to game sites.

The network has contractually obligated itself to pay mammoth rights fees in coming years to the NFL, NBA, MLB, college conferences and other entities. With less-than-expected revenue growth and greater outlays for content baked into the forecast, ESPN's dilemma is a vexing one that has profound implications.

The logical first step towards reversing the trend is to stop digging the hole deeper. But whether it is arrogance or ignorance, there are signs that ESPN doesn't recognize the peril it faces. Instead of fostering loyalty from as many of its most lucrative subscribers as possible, it seems to have veered purposefully into the arena of political correctness, a move sure to annoy millions of its subscribers – especially among the middle agers and baby boomers most likely to cling to cable as their means of TV reception.

ESPN is skating on thin ice. It severely damaged its credibility with its NFL lap dog reporting on Deflategate and its reluctance to correct the record. Yet it ventures even closer to the edge by testing the limits of how much agenda-driven sports journalism viewers will tolerate.

This column is not a statement on whether ESPN's political and cultural postures are right or wrong. It is a warning that someone in authority at ESPN is making a potentially monumental business mistake by pushing agendas that have little to do with sports.

The insertion of divisive cultural and political spin and prejudicial news coverage into its lineup of otherwise desirable programming is risky business. Millions of viewers whose sole purpose for coming to the network is to watch comprehensive and witty sports coverage will take only so much preaching before choosing an unbundled option.

Be wary, ESPN. Be very wary. Vulnerabilities have been exposed in your once invincible position. The Internet is your worst nightmare. The 18-to-34-year-old generation has no loyalty to you but has great fondness for streaming custom content to computers, tablets and smartphones.

Perhaps most ominous of all for the network, the older generations are gradually being dragged, kicking and screaming, to the new formats.

The TV viewing landscape is changing and you must change with it, ESPN — or else.

And remove the politics from the mix or the challenges you face may become much more formidable.