? Brawl could break cable bundle

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Data: American Television Alliance. Chart: Axios Visuals The financial dispute between Disney and Charter Communications, one of the nation's biggest cable TV companies, shows how cord-cutting threatens to permanently unravel the cable business. Why it matters: If this fight isn't resolved, the entire business model for the traditional cable TV industry could be on the verge of collapsing, Axios' Sara Fischer and Tim Baysinger report. With the NFL season about to kick off, Disney channels — including ABC, ESPN and FX — have been blacked out since Thursday for Charter's Spectrum nearly 15 million pay-TV customers. Charter Spectrum is the country's second-largest cable TV operator, second only to Comcast. Its footprint is heavily weighted toward L.A. (where it's the largest pay-TV provider, with 5 million subscribers) and New York City. Charter told investors it needs to either rethink the cable bundle or get out of that business entirely.