This is the second article I've seen on HN that implies that it's "bad for consumers" for ESPN to go a la cart, be paid for by less people, make less money and be forced to offer a lower quality product.
It's great for me, I don't want to watch ESPN. It's great for me, as my money is allocated towards the content I want to see. It does mean, overall, less money is allocated to TV entertainment creation. That doesn't strike me as bad on it's face either, but for some reason it does to the author.