The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will allow Time Warner to assign a set of licenses and authorizations previously granted by the FCC to Time Warner, moving Time Warner’s Time Warner Cable subsidiary another step closer to independence.
Most of the licenses and authorizations grant permission to run various broadcast operations.
Time Warner’s petition for the transfers was challenged by RCN Corp., Dish Network and a pair of small programmers, based on expectations that Time Warner Cable might act in an anti-competitive manner following its divestiture from Time Warner.
The FCC denied the specific challenge from RCN and dismissed the concerns of the other petitioners warning against the approval without conditions.
Commissioner Robert McDowell, regarding the FCC’s approval of the spin-off, said: “I am pleased that the Media Bureau was able to act on these applications expeditiously under the leadership of Acting Chairman Michael Copps. This is yet another transaction that indicates that the media marketplace continues to deconsolidate, a trend that has been evident in recent years.”
