Charter Communications would consider buying subscribers that Comcast could divest as part of its proposed Time Warner Cable takeover, Greg Maffei, chief executive of Charter’s largest stakeholder, Liberty Media, said Friday.
These were Liberty Media’s first comments since Charter Communications, in which it has a 27 stake, lost out on acquiring TWC to Comcast. Although Comcast, the top US cable operator, had always been intrigued by the idea of buying TWC, a deal was not on its list of priorities until Charter put it in play last summer.
Maffei told a conference call that Charter could still go after TWC if regulators reject the Comcast deal, although he expects it to win approval, though perhaps with “onerous conditions.”