NYT: Comcast, Time Warner Merger Still In A Regulatory Limbo

(RTTNews) - The uniting of the two largest cable TV operators in the U.S. is still in a regulatory limbo, even after a year of Comcast (CMCSA, CMCSK) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) agreeing to a merger, according to a report in the New York Times on Monday.

The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, has delayed its own deadline to review the planned mega-media merger, which would consolidate an already-concentrated industry.

U.S. President Barack Obama's call for the FCC to issue rules to protect net neutrality in mid-November has complicated the issue. Obama wants the FCC to expand its regulatory control over broadband providers, and the regulator has proposed stringent new rules to govern the Internet.

Net neutrality calls for no content being blocked on the Internet, and that broadband providers cannot charge companies for the privilege of allowing their websites to load faster. Cable and phone companies are opposed to the plan, and are up in arms against regulators.

The FCC shot out a letter in December to the two companies claiming that Time Warner Cable withholding certain documents requested by it was delaying its review of the deal as well as Comcast's side deal with its smaller rival Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR).

The FCC said at that time that to take these delays into account, it will stop the informal 180-day review period clock for three weeks until January 12, 2015, when it will be restarted. The review continues even as Comcast and Time Warner Cable are completing the process of their planned merger.

A combined entity is expected to control an estimated 35 percent of broadband Internet service coverage and just under 30 percent of the country's pay television subscribers.

Comcast agreed in mid-February to acquire Time Warner Cable in a $45.2 billion all-stock friendly merger deal. Time Warner Cable was to merge with and into a 100 percent owned subsidiary of Comcast.

The deal was originally expected to close in early 2015. Shareholders of both companies had in October overwhelmingly approved the merger.

The deal was struck after Comcast trumped a takeover attempt made for Time Warner Cable earlier by smaller rival Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable operator in the U.S.