PHILADELPHIA – The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved a $17 billion deal to sell the assets of bankrupt cable provider Adelphia Communications to Comcast and Time Warner Cable, removing the last federal regulatory hurdle to the transaction.

But the agency’s approval, which came in a 4-1 vote, came with conditions.

The FCC said Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable, a unit of Time Warner Inc. of New York, are prohibited from engaging in tactics that would effectively make regional sports programming unavailable to rivals, such as satellite TV.

Time Warner said in a statement that the FCC approval puts the deal on track to close by its target date of July 31.