Time Warner Cable to pay $3 billion for Insight Communications

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Time Warner Cable has struck a deal to acquire Insight Communications Co. for $3 billion.

The agreement, announced Monday, will add close to 700,000 cable subscribers to Time Warner Cable’s 12 million customers. Time Warner Cable is the second-largest cable operator behind Comcast Corp. and the fourth-largest multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) after Comcast and satellite broadcasters DirecTV and Dish Network.

The pact comes at a time when MVPDs have seen some subscriber losses due to both the economy and the growing availability of entertainment options online.

For Time Warner Cable, the Insight purchase makes sense because the cable giant already has a strong presence in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, where the majority of Insight’s subscribers live. Insight is currently owned by the Carlyle Group, Crestview Partners and MidOcean Partners.

‘We believe in our business and its long-term prospects and have long thought that Insight’s well-run, technologically advanced systems would fit well with our Midwest operations,’ said Time Warner Cable Chairman Glenn Britt.

While the deal will require regulatory approval and is a sign of further consolidation in an already shrinking entertainment and telecommunications industry, it will not face the same scrutiny as the Comcast-NBC deal.

-- Joe Flint