Byron Allen: Charter-TWC Deal Not Done Yet

Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios (ES), which filed a $10-billion discrimination lawsuit against Charter Communications for allegedly not launching "100% African-American-owned" programming networks, said that news outlets were off base in reporting that the Federal Communications Commission was close to circulating an approval order for Charter's merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

ES and The National Association of African American-Owned Media, which joined in the suit, said they had been told that investigations into the deal were "very much ongoing." It also said that the FCC had not yet circulated the item, which multiple sources confirmed, and which also means that the investigation would be ongoing regardless of the eventual outcome, which is still widely believed by those inside and outside the commission to be approval. They also said that the FCC indicated it could impose conditions -- it will certainly do so if it approves the deal as expected -- too onerous and Charter could walk away, which is theoretically the case with any merger.