Comcast Corporation confirmed on Thursday that it was buying Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion, in an all-stock deal that would merge the two largest cable TV providers in the United States.

The combined company would serve some 30 million subscribers, or about 30 per cent of the pay television market in the country.

The tie-up comes amid major shifts in the American media landscape in recent years, much of it driven by internet streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu eating into the subscriber base of traditional cable and internet providers.

In addition to being the country’s biggest cable operator, Philidelphia-based Comcast also owns the NBC broadcast network and the Universal film studio.

The deal will see Comcast buying its smaller rival, which serves 11 million customers mainly in the north-east but also in other strategically important areas such as Texas and southern California, for about $159 per share.

On approval, current Time Warner Cable shareholders will have about a 23 per cent stake in Comcast.

The merger is still subject to shareholder approval and faces a review process by anti-trust regulators, who will look at the potential impact on customers.

Comcast said it expects the deal to close by the end of the year.

“Comcast and Time Warner Cable have been the leaders in all of the industry’s most important innovations of the last 25 years and this merger will accelerate the pace of that innovation,” said Time Warner Cable chairman and chief executive Robert Marcus in a statement.

Time Warner Cable recently rejected a takeover bid by Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable operator, saying Charter’s offer undervalued the company.

Last year, Comcast acquired 100 per cent ownership of NBCUniversal, which operates several cable channels and the NBC broadcast network.

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