US: Feds approve $78b Charter-TWC merger

Charter Communications Inc. won US antitrust approval for its $55 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, which would create the No. 2 US cable provider, after agreeing to measures intended to protect distribution of online video.

Charter can’t strike agreements with programmers that would make it more difficult for streaming services like Netflix Inc. to obtain content, the Justice Department said in a statement Monday. Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, also supports approval of the merger.

“Online video distributors offer consumers greater choices for video services,” said Renata Hesse, the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division. “This merger would have threatened competition by increasing the merged company’s leverage to demand that programmers limit their licensing to these online providers.”

US officials are trying to protect the growing market for online video streaming and have moved to prevent cable companies from using their control over broadband to thwart distribution of content by entertainment companies over the Internet. Charter and No. 1 Comcast Corp. would have an effective duopoly over broadband service to US homes, critics of the deal have said. Charter said it will serve less than 21 percent of the broadband market.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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