FCC Approves Adelphia Deal

The Federal Communications Commission, as expected, gave the OK to the deal to break up Adelphia's cable systems between Time Warner and Comcast. It's the last big regulatory hurdle for the deal.

The Washington Post reports that the 4-1 nod came with some conditions, mostly attached to rights to sports programming.

Adelphia's management had said earlier that July 31st was a "drop dead" date for the deal to be completed. Here at OMW Central, we don't know if this officially clears away all the obstacles for the deal - we're wondering if the new Adelphia owners have gotten all their local approvals, for one.

But barring any tie up, it would appear that the deal is on track to close sometime before the end of the month.

When it does, Time Warner Cable will take the mantle of the most dominant cable operator in the Northeast Ohio region...taking not only Adelphia's large Cleveland-based system and others in Northern Ohio, but also Comcast's Cleveland operations. Comcast will - in turn - take over some Time Warner systems in other markets to pair with Adelphia's systems...