Charter Communications plans to acquire Time Warner Cable in a $78.7bn deal. The acquisition follows an earlier attempt by Comcast to buy TWC, a plan foiled by regulators worried about lack of competition in the market for high-speed internet.
The combined company will be the second-largest U.S. cable operator and the largest in Southern California. It will be the third-largest pay TV company in the U.S. behind Comcast and the planned AT&T-DirecTV. It would be the biggest player in such major markets as New York and L.A. Overall, the combined cable company would have 23.9 million total subscribers in 41 markets, compared with Comcast's roughly 27 million customer relations as of the end of the first quarter.
Tl;dr together they will account for 34 percent of the US cable market, and still not be as big as that beast, Comcast, with 42 percent.
