The Federal Communications Commission gave the green light to a transaction in which News Corp. will hand over controlling interest in DirecTV Group Inc. to Liberty Media Corp., paving the way for the deal to close as early as today, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Approval had been expected following news last week that a majority of FCC commissioners had voted in favor of the deal. An FCC statement said the vote was 5-0, although both Democratic members of the commission had expressed concerns with aspects of the transaction.

The announcement means that the last regulatory hurdle has been cleared for the deal, which was announced in late 2006. News Corp. will hand over its roughly 40% stake in DirecTV and some smaller assets in exchange for Liberty’s holdings in News Corp.

The FCC did impose some conditions, as had been expected. Liberty Media will have to give up management control or ownership of either the satellite-television operation in Puerto Rico or the cable-TV business on the island.

Liberty and DirecTV must also agree to allow binding arbitration if they are unable to reach agreement with other pay-TV operators seeking access to their television programming in the future. A similar condition was imposed on News Corp. when it acquired the stake in DirecTV in 2003. That remains in effect.

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