Improved the product? Are you freaking serious? Like others have said, I would watch ESPN hours a day, but now? If I have to watch the Canes on ESPN, I will. Other than that, I never watch them. Ever.
The amount of live and recorded sports on ESPN is incredible. I do not live in Florida, yet I am able to watch every single Canes football, basketball, and (as of last year) baseball game thanks to ESPN. ****, I can even choose a homer broadcast for some of the big games.
More of a nitch sports fan? Great, ESPN has you covered.
-Want to watch USA-France basketball tomorrow at 7 AM? You can.
-Want to watch tonight's USL soccer match? You can.
-Want to watch a replay of the UMass-Harvard women's soccer match? You can.
-Want to watch this weekend's WBO junior featherweight title match? You can.
Plus, ESPN has always aggressively expanded to new media. Be it with their site 20 years ago, their app a decade ago, or streaming in recent years, ESPN has always been on the cutting edge of whatever the latest distribution channel is - which isn't essential for their survival, given their exclusive control over the one type of content that people still want to watch live.
The ESPN product has improved 100x.
(Oh, and ESPN could care less that you no longer consumer Sportscenter reruns ad nauseam. You've probably just aged out of that, and have been replaced by the next generation of fans, which has different tastes than you do and prefers to watch people yell at each other, for some reason.)