Have you ever played pass the parcel as a kid? Owning expensive sports rights, when a variety of sports decide to “go direct” to consumers, is what pass the parcel is like. The broadcaster holding sports rights and having committed to pay $billions over time for them, is left holding the parcel, when the business model unravels. That’s pretty much what Altice US is saying about Disney to its customers, and that ESPN is the parcel. “Disney is desperate to make up for ESPN’s crumbling business so the solution is to force Optimum customers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more than we are currently paying to continue carrying ESPN, The Disney Channel and ABC.” Sounds about right to…