Despite a ferocious lobbying effort to get federal approval for a deal since last year, cable giant Comcast is planning to drop its highly-contested bid to merge with its largest competitor Time-Warner, reports Bloomberg news on Thursday.

According to Bloomberg:

Opponents of the merger, including consumer advocates and media watchdogs, immediately welcomed the news.

Miles Rapoport, president of Common Cause, championed the efforts of his members who lobbied the FCC and lawmakers to reject the deal. “Citizen voices can still make a difference in our government’s decision making,” Rapoport stated. “More than 800,000 Americans told the FCC that the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger would be bad for competition and innovation; their arguments were well-founded and have now carried the day. This is their victory.”

Michael Copps, a former FCC commissioner and now a special advisor to Common Cause, said the development was “spectacularly good news for consumers concerned about the spiraling cost of cable and broadband and for millions of citizens who want nothing more to do with gatekeeping and consolidation in the communications ecosystem on which our democracy depends.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who stressed his opposition to the deal since it was first announced last year, welcomed what appeared like a defeat for the cable giant.

“The report that Comcast is backing away from its bid to take over Time Warner Cable is good news for American consumers,” Sanders said. “The level of media consolidation in America already is unacceptable and it would have been extremely dangerous for one company to control 57 percent of the broadband Internet market, 30 percent of the cable market and dominate 19 of the 20 largest U.S metropolitan areas.”

In response to the news, Matt Wood, policy director at the media advocacy group Free Press Policy, issued the following statement: