&quot;When ESPN was adding subscribers, the $6.50 per-month-per-subscriber it charges to every cable operator meant $78 of additional annual profit for each new subscriber. This is a wonderful thing until a network starts losing customers, at which point all the revenue from every lost subscriber is chopped right out of that same network’s net profits.&quot;<p>This sounds like a &quot;collapse of complex societies&quot; in which the Roman Empire can expand as long as there are increasing returns to complexification, but collapses when the yields of complexification plateau and there is instead declining marginal productivity. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.historytoday.com&#x2F;christopher-chippindale&#x2F;collapse-complex-societies" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.historytoday.com&#x2F;christopher-chippindale&#x2F;collapse...</a>