(Telecompaper) The US Department of Justice and FCC have cleared the proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks by Charter Communications with a number of conditions. This creates the country's second-largest cable operator and third-largest pay-TV provider with over 17 million subscribers. The DoJ's main competition concern was the cable operator restricting access to certain content, making it more difficult for online video providers to obtain programming. It said that Time Warner had been an "industry leader" in such practices, prohibiting content providers from distributing their material with online rivals, and the new, bigger Charter would have even more incentive to do so. Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Charter would be prohibited from entering into or enforcing any agreement with a programmer that forbids, limits or creates incentives to limit the programmer's provision of content to one or more online video distributors. Nor could Charter retaliate against programmers for licensing to online providers.