The NHL entered into a seven-year media rights deal with ESPN three years ago. The goal was to expand its reach and cultivate a wider audience.However, recent reports indicate that ESPN's subscriber base has experienced a significant decline from 80 million to 45 million during this period. This is a significant loss of 35 million subscribers, which has prompted parent company Disney to seek a strategic partner for the network.As the NHL's partnership with ESPN navigates these challenges, fans have taken to Twitter to voice their opinions on the state of the league's coverage:"The ESPN coverage of hockey is abysmal. If it’s the only place a game is available, I just won’t watch it. They don’t understand hockey at all."Another fan, inspired by Apple's involvement in Major League Soccer (MLS), proposed a similar revitalization for the NHL:"What Apple did for the MLS, they can do for the NHL."One Twitter user expressed a yearning for the days when NBC held the reins, saying:"NBC was a much better partner. NBC + TNT was the move."As Disney seeks a strategic partner for ESPN, it's clear that the landscape of sports broadcasting is entering a new era. The challenges faced by ESPN are definitely attention-worthy and concerning.More about the NHL-ESPN partnership and the plan moving forwardIn its recent quarterly earnings call, Disney reported a slight decline in ESPN+ subscribers, marking the platform's first step back in growth since its inception over five years ago.The number of subscribers decreased from 25.3 million to 25.2 million, accompanied by a drop in average monthly revenue per user from $5.64 to $5.45.Disney remains optimistic about its direct-to-consumer business, which saw losses reduced by over half year-over-year, totaling $512 million. The company plans to implement price increases across most streaming services to boost revenue. But this could work against it.Disney's CEO Bob Iger reaffirmed the intention to introduce a full direct-to-consumer version of ESPN, emphasizing that the transition is a matter of "when," not "if."The overall revenue for the quarter grew by 4% to $22.3 billion, with operating income remaining stable at about $3.6 billion.