By Shalini Ramachandran
Cable giant Comcast Corp. said Wednesday its expects its merger
with Time Warner Cable Inc. to close in the middle of the year, a
delay from its earlier guidance that it would be completed in early
2015.
In a blog post, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen
said recent regulatory delays, including the Federal Communications
Commission's decision this month to pause its informal "shot clock"
for completing the review, contributed to the decision to revise
the time frame.
Comcast's proposed $45 billion deal, which would unite the two
largest U.S. cable companies and create a behemoth in broadband
access and pay television, is receiving intense scrutiny from
regulators. Regulators have continued to ask for large amounts of
information from the merging parties and their competitors.
One major cause of delay has been a dispute between big TV
channel owners and the FCC over the confidentiality of programmers'
contracts with Comcast and other pay-TV providers. AT&T Inc.'s
$49 billion deal for DirecTV has also faced delays in the review
process due to this dispute, which is playing out in D.C. federal
court. In February, the court heard arguments in the case, but it
hasn't yet issued a decision.
Comcast has said that the court case is a "procedural matter"
unrelated to the merits of its TWC deal.
Write to Shalini Ramachandran at
shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com
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