The FCC has started its review of Charter Communications planned purchases of Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bright House Networks.
The commission will review the US$56bn acquisition of TWC and the US$10.4bn takeover of Bright House simultaneously, the…
The FCC has started its review of Charter Communications planned purchases of Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bright House Networks.
The commission will review the US$56bn acquisition of TWC and the US$10.4bn takeover of Bright House simultaneously, the commission confirmed in a statement.
Analysts and lawyers generally believe the Charter-TWC-Bright House review will be quicker than that for the failed Comcast-TWC deal as the FCC has now spent a good deal of time examining the market. They also tend to believe the proposed deal stands a good chance of passing regulatory muster as it does not present the same threat to competition. The fact that Charter-TWC-Bright House’s broadband footprint would be much smaller is a key reason many believe it is likely to be cleared.
New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin said in a recent research note that he believes Charter’s deal has an 80-85% chance of approval by the FCC and Department of Justice.
“Not only would Charter’s number [of broadband subscribers] be significantly below the Comcast/TWC number, Charter’s statements on a number of issues where the fear of blocking occurred, suggest it understands how it needs to structure its relationships with others to gain approval.”
Charter announced it had reached agreements to buy TWC and Bright House in late May. The three-way merger would create the US’ second-largest broadband internet provider behind Comcast with 19.4 million subscribers. It would be the third largest multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD).
