On Feb. 13, Comcast announced its plans to buy Time Warner Cable for more than $45 billion.

If approved by government regulators, the merger would unite the two largest cable providers in the United States. According to subscriber numbers from Leichtman Research Group as of late 2013, the two own over 60 percent of cable subscriptions in America.

So does this merger have a chance at approval or is it destined to be struck down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)?

Within hours of the announcement on that February night, voices of all kinds came out to condemn the merger and its prospects for federal approval.

"This is so over the top that it ought to be dead on arrival at the FCC," said Michael Copps, a former FCC commissioner and current consumer advocate.

Consumer groups such as Public Knowledge and Free Press echoed those sentiments. In Congress, Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has expressed skepticism about the deal's fairness.

Despite the lobbying that is sure to come from both sides — and has already started — the merger will ultimately come down to approval by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FCC, and their antitrust and public interest standards, respectively.

Before the merger can progress, Comcast and Time Warner have to file paperwork under the Hart-Scott-Rudino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the DOJ, as well as under public interest concerns to the FCC. The FTC and DOJ share responsibility for mergers under the antitrust standards, with the DOJ usually handling telecom and communications transactions.

The companies are expected make the filings within the first two weeks of April, according to Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen. In weeks leading up to the filings, it's likely that Comcast has been preparing for regulatory questions.

"You file with the DOJ and FCC knowing what questions are going to be asked," said Mark Stachiw, a general counsel and secretary with NxGen Partners and a board member on the Metroplex Technology Business Council in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

And Stachiw would know as he worked as general counsel for MetroPCS during its merger with T-Mobile USA.

After filing, the Department of Justice will have 20 business days to figure out any concerns and ask for a second request.

"After the second request is when the kabuki dance really starts, and concessions start to get hammered out," Stachiw said.

For the Comcast-Time Warner merger, it's important to note that attorneys general from more than 24 states are also investigating the merger for antitrust concerns. Each of those investigations and potential antitrust suits comes with a likely round of legal negotiations and concessions on the state levels.

Much of the news has focused on the cable TV side of Comcast's business. However, the companies' Internet subscribers and programming holdings make it a merger that is likely to be protracted in nature.

The FCC is most concerned with the public interest standard, which has been defined broadly in the past. In the recent past, the FCC's most notable public interest point of emphasis has been related to net neutrality. When Comcast acquired 51 percent of NBCUniversal in 2011, it agreed to general net neutrality terms until 2018, among other concessions.

Both before and after a federal appeals court struck down the FCC's Open Internet rules, which included broad enforcement of net neutrality, Comcast subscribers reported slower speeds on Netflix. Shortly after the merger announcement, Netflix paid Comcast an undisclosed sum to protect speeds on the streaming service for Comcast subscribers.

Adding to the FCC equation for the merger is the relatively recent ascension of Tom Wheeler to chairman of the commission. Media outlets such as Reuters have speculated that Wheeler may work as an adversary to Comcast, due to his familiarity with the ins and outs of lobbying as head of cable and wireless trade groups. Others aren't as sure.

"I don't expect that Tom Wheeler will be much different from any of his recent predecessors," Stachiw said. "The public interest will continue to be a priority, as will net neutrality. And it's important to remember than there are four other commissioners. It's not a dictatorship."

In recent days, Charter Communications, which also made an offer for Time Warner of approximately the same value as Comcast's proposed acquisition, has urged Time Warner shareholders to reject the deal, citing in part "higher regulatory risk."

In a fact sheet following the transaction's announcement, Comcast stated, "This transaction is, and will be determined to be proconsumer, procompetitive, strongly in the public interest and approvable."

Perhaps the most important aspect of the acquisition from a cable subscriber perspective is that Comcast and Time Warner do not directly compete for cable subscribers in any one market. This fact will most likely allay any major antitrust concerns for the Department of Justice. However, the days are long gone where Comcast is solely a regional cable company.

"This isn't a merger like ours with MetroPCS where you had companies operating in the same areas and there was a question of taking away choices in the market," said Stachiw. "But the biggest thing Comcast will probably have to answer for to the FCC is with its programming interests after the NBCUniversal merger."

The potential union of all Comcast and Time Warner Cable properties has groups like the American Cable Association worried that the deal will give Comcast leverage to force exorbitant carriage fees for the NBCUniversal channels. The ACA represents small- and medium-sized cable operators around the country. In order to placate regulators, Comcast may be forced to sell or spin off some of its properties.

Already, in the weeks since the merger announcement, Comcast has made some moves to position itself in good favor for public interests standards. On March 4, Comcast expanded its low-income broadband Internet service, eligible to 2.6 million families.

It's one of many moves in a transaction that is likely to be bumpy and drawn out, but ultimately successful.