They only make money by keeping customers happy. Isn't that why ESPN and Comcast want the World Series in the first place? Customers aren't giving them money in return for nothing like automatons.

People always try to make businesses out as the unitary function organizations where their profit is completely disconnected from serving a market and keeping that market happy.

The only time when companies can operate without keeping customers happy are a) when they have an absolute monopoly and (often the same) b) when they are given some sort of political protection from the marketplace whether indirectly or directly.