Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge’s total compensation was relatively flat in 2015 at $16.4 million, just 2% higher than the $16.1 million he received in 2014.

For the most part, other Charter executives were in the same boat, with the total compensation of Charter’s five top executives up between 1% and 3%. Charter, which agreed to purchase Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last May, is close to receiving approval for the deal from the Federal Communications Commission, with chairman Tom Wheeler expected to circulate an order approving the merger to other commissioners to vote on as early as this week. 

Rutledge’s salary remained the same at $2 million in 2015, and he received stock awards of $999,925 for the year, down slightly from the $999,995 he received in 2014. Option awards were  $8.99 million for the year – in line with 2014 and Rutledge received $4.2 million in non equity incentives, up from $3.8 million in 2014.   

Chief operating officer John Bickham’s total compensation was up 1.2% to $8.7 million from $8.6 million in 2014, while chief financial officer Christopher Winfrey saw his total compensation rise 2.8% from $3.6 million in 2014 to $3.7 million in 2015. Rounding out the team, EVP and president, commercial services Don DeTampel received a 2.8% raise to $3.7 million from 3.6 million , and EVP and chief marketing officer Jonathan Hargis’ total compensation stayed even at $3.5 million.

The government has no problem with Sinclair's purchase of the Tennis Channel, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an OK that paves the way for the acquisition's closing.

Sinclair last month struck a deal to buy the channel for $350 million, expanding the station group's cable footprint beyond the NewsChannel 8 news net it picked up in the Allbritton purchase.

The FTC Thursday (Feb. 25) included the deal on its list of transactions granted early termination of their Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust review.

Any deal valued north of approximately $75 million must get such a review. Early termination means neither the Justice Department nor the FTC, which releases the list, has found any reason to block or condition the deal.

The merger does not involve the transfer of FCC licenses, so the commission does not have to weigh in on the public interest benefits.