The likelihood of Comcast getting a green light on the merger from the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission is highly unlikely, given recent reports from both departments citing issues with the Time Warner Cable merger for $45 billion.

The merger has been under review for more than a year now, but reports say it is close to ending. The DOJ will go into negotiations with Comcast, where they are likely to pile a bunch of conditions and regulations on the merger to make sure Comcast doesn't gain a stranglehold on broadband services.

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These conditions may force Comcast away from the talks, especially if both the DOJ and FCC push for hefty conditions involving net neutrality, lower cost broadband, municipal broadband and competitive pricing for high-speed broadband.

Comcast already offered broadband service to almost all of the U.S. as part of the merger, although several analysts and advocates claim once Comcast has Time Warner Cable, there is no way to track and properly punish the company for not acting on its arrangement.

At least with conditions like removing the lawsuit on the FCC for net neutrality changes, these can be tracked before and after the merger.

Of course, the DOJ and FCC may just outright block the merger from happening. If this happens, Comcast will likely go to court against the two departments to try and win the right to acquisition, but it will be a hard fought battle and not one it is likely to win, given the common hatred between consumers and legislators directed at Comcast.

Comcast's previous acquisition of NBC Universal will also be looked into prior to an official announcement, since it also came with a strict set of conditions. If Comcast has not kept to those conditions, it will be even more likely the Time Warner Cable merger will be blocked by the two departments.

Considering Time Warner Cable and Comcast are the lowest when it comes to customer satisfaction nationwide, that should be enough for the FCC and DOJ to go against the merger.

The announcement by the DOJ should happen sometime within the next 30 days, with an FCC announcement soon after. Comcast claims it is confident the merger will go through, but has not revealed any of the conditions applied to get the green light.

TagsComcast, Time Warner Cable, FCC, DOJ, internet service providers, cable TV