Comcast, as we reported earlier, wants to buy Time Warner Cable for about $45 billion. The deal, which Comcast confirmed this morning, would bring together the nation's No. 1 (Comcast) and No. 2 (Time Warner) cable companies.
NPR's David Folkenflik filed this report for our Newscast Desk:
"If the deal goes through, Comcast will serve about thirty million American households in cable tv alone
"The news was broken by a reporter for one of Comcast's many television properties — CNBC. Comcast also owns NBC and Universal studios. The purchase would stave off a lesser bid for Time Warner by a smaller rival, Charter, and it would give Comcast more leverage when it negotiates with the parent companies of such major cable channels as Fox News and ESPN over how much to pay to carry their programming.
"Federal anti-trust lawyers at the Justice Department are likely to review the deal, which would mean fewer players competing to win cable franchises from regional and local governments.
"Time Warner Cable itself is a remnant of an even larger mega-deal - the creation of AOL Time Warner — now considered one of the worst mergers in U.S. history."