The cable industry is fighting back against streaming services with the announcement that Charter Communications and Cox Communications will merge. Charter, more commonly known as Spectrum, will buy Cox Communications for around $34.5 billion, one of the largest deals in the industry over the last year. It’ll also become a much bigger broadband service provider.
Charter is the second-largest publicly traded cable company behind Comcast. With over 6.5 million customers, Cox is the third-largest cable company. Combined, they would become the largest cable TV and broadband provider in the US.
“This combination will augment our ability to innovate and provide high-quality, competitively priced products, delivered with outstanding customer service, to millions of homes and businesses,” said Chris Winfrey, president and CEO of Charter, in the press release on Friday.
The combined companies would be called Cox Communications, with the name change to occur within a year of the deal closing. The merger is still subject to regulatory and Charter shareholder approvals before it is final, however.
According to the release, Charter will buy Cox Communications’ commercial fiber and managed IT and cloud businesses. Cox Enterprises will contribute Cox Communications’ residential cable business to Charter Holdings, which is an existing subsidiary partnership of Charter.
A representative from Charter Communications did not immediately respond to comment.
