Bright House Networks may soon have a new owner.
The Tampa Bay Times reports the cable TV company is in talks to be sold to Charter Communications, the nation's fourth-largest cable service provider.
Bright House is currently owned by the Newhouse family, who also owns Conde Nast, the publisher of major magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Wired and The New Yorker.
If the deal goes through, it would be this year's second big shakeup in the Tampa Bay cable and broadband market. Last month, Verizon sold its local telephone, broadband and pay TV business to Frontier Communications in a $10 billion deal.
According to the Times:
Bright House looks to be worth $10 to $12 billion, reports say. The cable company also runs the Bay News 9 local news channel and has its name on the Philadelphia Phillies spring training complex in Clearwater. It has about 2.5 million cable subscribers, with its biggest market in Florida, where it has a strong presence in both the Tampa Bay and Orlando metro areas.
If Bright House does agree to sell to Charter, the deal would still have to be approved by regulators.
The Times also notes that last year, Charter attempted to buy Time Warner Cable, but was outbid by Comcast. The Time Warner/Comcast deal still has not been approved by regulators, so if it it falls through, it is possible Charter's interest in buying Time Warner may be renewed.
