Full steam ahead...with Media M/A

It appears that the media industry set the re-start button on merger activity after last month's derailment of the Comcast-TWC merger.  Reports suggest that Charter is close to announcing a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.  While regulators will have to review the merits of the deal, including assessing the impact on subscribers and competitors, it is highly likely the deal will be approved.  Why?  Many [not all] of the reasons are similar to why the AT&T-DirecTV merger will go through.  Here are they are:
1) A stronger #2 to Comcast.  As a share of the U.S. broadband market, a combined Charter (6%) /TWC (14%) /Bright House (3%) would have 23%, just two percentage points behind Comcast.
(Source: The Leichtman Research Group.  Percentages were of the top providers accounting for 94% of the total market.)
2) Greater scale -- geographical clustering for network efficiencies and stronger negotiating heft to balance the power of content owners.
3) In spite of expanded coverage, there is very limited market overlap.  Where there may be overlap (a few communities in southern California), regulators may require some concessions or divestitures. 4) FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, indicated that he is not opposed to industry mergers in spite of the Comcast-TWC decision.