“I really am OK and looking forward to what comes next for our company,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told CNBC after agreeing with his board late Thursday evening to throw in the towel on a merging deal with Time Warner Cable (TWC).

The deal between Comcast and TWC would have combined the top two cable companies and had put nearly thirty percent of TV and about 55 percent of broadband subscribers under one roof, along with NBC Universal.

While Comcast might have thought of the deal as a major leap forward, consumers, competitors, and politicians criticized the deal believing that the deal would lead to high prices and less choices.   Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a written statement, “The proposed merger would have posed an unacceptable risk to competition and innovation, including to the ability of online video providers to reach and serve consumers.”

One of the many complaints about the deal was that it would undermine the streaming video industry. If the deal had gone through, Comcast would have been able to charge prices from new online-only video providers for connecting to its network; this would have included Netfilx, and Dish’s new Web video service Sling TV.

It was also not a surprise that Netflix was against the deal and wanted it to fail, leading many to believe that Comcast would try to go after Netflix sometime in the future considering Netflix is worth just a little under $34 billion and has been a thorn in their side for years.

ABC News reported that the Federal Communications Commission in February released new “Net Neutrality” rules meant to keep broadband providers from charging Internet companies for “fast lane” access or favoring some content which was basically the final nail in the merging deal.

“We have to live with it, and respect that, and move on,” Roberts told CNBC during an interview talking about the government’s opposition to the deal.  Roberts added, “We always structured this deal in a way that would enable us to walk away.”

Wisely enough, Comcast did plan ahead and made sure that if the deal did not go through, they would not have to pay any breakup fee. Nevertheless, Roberts is enthusiastic about the future having said on Friday, “I really am OK and looking forward to what comes next for our company” and added “It is an exciting time in the media landscape.”

Whatever the future holds, it will be interesting to see what Comcast does next in their conquest of cable and streaming services.