A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. The most common complaint for anyone who watches television today is how confusing it is to find and access what to watch. This is a symptom of a business reality: the multibillion dollar cable TV industry is dying but not dead, and the replacement concoction of streaming services hasn't been aggregated to make a simple user experience. The combination is a confounding mishmash. But if you squint, you can start to see a burgeoning solution. In recent weeks, both Comcast and DirecTV have announced so-called skinny bundles of linear networks designed for sports fans. DirecTV plans to roll out several more genre-specific bundles, including packages that cater to entertainment and kids. Meanwhile, more and more pay TV operators are demanding that regional sports networks are tiered – meaning they're no longer included in a customer's standard cable bundle. To get access to RSNs, which are typically among the most expensive cable networks for pay TV operators to carry, customers will need to pay an extra monthly fee. Comcast, the largest U.S. pay TV provider, has already instituted these fees in many markets, and they can be pricey. Northern California Xfinity subscribers now have to shell out $20 more a month to watch their favorite teams. The idea here is to lower the cost of linear TV to keep it relevant for younger users. If cable becomes a cost efficient option, perhaps pay TV providers can entice people in their 20s and 30s who have grown up on Netflix and other streaming services that have long been cheaper than cable. While Main Street Sports CEO David Preschlack told me earlier this month he felt this model was probably a fait accompli for RSNs, Altice USA CEO Dennis Mathew says a lot of RSNs are still fighting to stay in the primary bundle. Altice USA is the fourth-largest cable provider in the United States. It's currently in a carriage dispute with MSG Networks, the home of the NBA's New York Knicks and the NHL's New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders. Mathew told me he won't do a deal with MSG Networks under the old rules. "We're not signing up for the legacy model," Mathew said in an interview. "When you look at these regional sports nets like MSG and others, 50% of our customers have never tuned in. And so we need a new approach that fully acknowledges how consumers want to consume content going forward." In addition to skinnier bundles of channels, pay TV operators are beginning to bundle the smaller groups of networks with streaming services. DirecTV will soon announce skinny packages that also include Hulu and Disney+. The company hasn't shared pricing yet. The logical end game is a world where consumers choose which streaming services they want and pair them with skinny bundles of linear channels. Imagine selecting, for example, Netflix, Max, Disney+, Hulu and a linear bundle of channels that includes sports. Then, for each streaming platform you select or deselect, the price changes. The more services you choose, the bigger bundled discount you get. This dynamic pricing approach that users can customize by clicking apps or packages on a screen is part of what Mathew is now discussing with media partners. "We're going to make it super simple where you can have linear content combined with streaming content, and the option to turn that streaming content on and off," said Mathew. "Those are the conversations that we're having as we're coming into these programming renegotiations." Dynamic flexible offerings will likely start with the legacy media companies – Disney, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery – because they have regularly scheduled content renewal agreements with pay TV operations every two or three years. Charter, the second-largest U.S. cable provider, has been particularly aggressive in its recent carriage deals with media companies, ensuring it can include or bundle legacy media's streaming services with packages of linear TV. Mathew expects Netflix, Amazon, Apple and others will eventually join in. "We're just starting these conversations with some of the newer folks to say, how do we work together? How does one plus one equal three? And they're excited about that," Mathew said. There are still large hurdles that need to be cleared regarding revenue and data sharing and password efficiency. Ideally, cable companies want to be the point of contact for consumers, and it's currently cumbersome for users to have different logins for each streaming service. For years, media watchers have wondered who would become the dominant aggregator of choice among streaming services. Would it be Amazon Channels, or the Apple store? How about YouTube? Perhaps the answer will simply be the same aggregator for your TV over the last 50 years – your cable company. Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC. On the record New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns ... He's the man who signed Juan Soto to the largest contract in the history of U.S. sports, and he's not even 40 years old. New York Mets General Manager David Stearns has earned a reputation as a baseball wunderkind , working his way up from Brooklyn Cyclones intern to Milwaukee Brewers GM in 2015 at the age of 30. Last year, he took over as head of baseball operations for Mets owner Steve Cohen , who has publicly stated he wants a World Series in his first five years owning the team . Well, this coming season is year five for Cohen. So, is he already pressuring Stearns? "I think over Steve's tenure of ownership, he's learned how difficult this is, and he's learned that patience is required," Stearns said. And, of course, I had to ask Stearns about the Mets' ongoing efforts to re-sign Pete Alonso. Watch the full interview. CNBC Sport highlight reel The best of CNBC Sport from the past week: A 30-second Super Bowl ad will cost you a cool $8 milly. That's a record, which isn't surprising. Almost every year brings another record price for Super Bowl ads. The Super Bowl is the Super Bowl of the advertising industry. CNBC's Lillian Rizzo has more . Major League Pickleball isn't profitable yet, but it's targeting the end of this year to break into the black. The league also wants to add two more teams, which would make 24 total. CNBC's Jess Golden has other exclusive details. Former NFL linebacker Brandon Copeland joined CNBC's "Halftime Report" to declare NIL (name, image and likeness) "out of control" because athletes aren't receiving all of the money promised to them. Copeland is the executive director and co-founder of Athletes.org , the players association for college athletes. Major League Table Tennis is coming to your TV screen . CBS Sports Network will air MLTT matches and related content throughout the season beginning Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. The big number: $11,991.48 As of Wednesday 4 p.m. ET, that's the average price for a Super Bowl ticket, according to TicketSmarter. Bust open those piggy banks! Quote of the week "It's difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they're doing." –Even New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner is complaining that spending has gotten out of control in Major League Baseball. Most of the ire is directed at the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers' total payroll for 2025 will likely exceed $500 million, including penalties, according to ESPN — not to mention the more than $1 billion in salary deferred to years in the future. Steinbrenner spoke in an interview with the YES Network. The drumbeat is getting louder among owners to push for a MLB salary cap when the league's current collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1, 2026. It's something David Stearns acknowledged in our interview. "We have not had parity in spending," Stearns told me. "I think there is a conversation that is ongoing about the importance to baseball of closing some of those spending gaps. And I think it's primarily important because markets like Milwaukee, markets like Tampa, when you draft, sign and develop a star, you should have the ability and the capability to really keep those stars in smaller markets. We've seen other sports figure out how to make that happen. Baseball has had a little bit of a tougher time figuring out how to make that happen." Around the league Billionaire cable mogul Rocco Commisso , the founder of Mediacom, has been outed as using a burner Twitter account to attack Major League Soccer. Commisso was also the chairman of the North American Soccer League, a professional men's soccer league that folded in 2017. NASL and Commisso filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing MLS and the U.S. Soccer Federation of conspiring to doom the league. This just in: Americans like watching the NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs' 32-29 AFC Championship Game win over the Buffalo Bills averaged 57.4 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen, making it the most-watched AFC title game ever. The previous record was … last year. A groundbreaking deal in women's soccer this week: Naomi Girma is leaving the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) for The Women's Super League, the highest level soccer league in England. The Chelsea Women football club paid a record $1.1 million transfer fee for Girma – the first time that fee has ever crossed the $1 million mark in women's soccer.
