The Federal Communications Commission is planning to "look to see how American consumers would benefit" from a proposal submitted by Charter Communications to purchase Time Warner Cable for $56 billion.
The agency's chairman Tom Wheeler spoke with Reuters about the proposed deal, which seeks to improve on challenges that were encountered during Comcast's own attempt to purchase the second-largest cable company in the United States. John Malone, Charter's largest stakeholder, is said to be holding the reins in efforts to acquire Time Warner.
While many remain skeptical about the possibility of the deal being approved by the FCC, others believe the agency may be more willing to work closely on this deal.
"This is a qualitatively different deal," said Adonis Hoffman, former chief of staff to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, according to Reuters.
"The regulatory hurdles will be lower on this transaction primarily because you don't have the same public interest concerns that you had with Comcast, in additional to a smaller total footprint across the nation.
Charter, like many other cable companies, remains in competition with online streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. These services are said to be responsible for declines in television subscription services.
Charter was founded in 1993 in St. Louis.
