Top executives close to Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) have reached out to management at Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N) to discuss a possible merger of the cable operators, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

John Malone, chairman of Charter's biggest shareholder Liberty Broadband Corp (LBRDA.O) called Time Warner Cable's Chief Executive Officer Rob Marcus "in recent days" to express Charter's interest in pursuing friendly deal talks, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.

The report comes after the companies' bitter exchanges that ended with Time Warner Cable rejecting Charter's unsolicited approaches last year, when Time Warner had found a white knight in Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O).

Last week, Reuters reported that Time Warner Cable was open to merger discussions with Charter after Comcast's $45 billion bid for TWC failed, according to people familiar with the matter.

On May 1, Charter reported a bigger quarterly loss, hurt by costs related to the failed deal between Comcast and Time Warner that involved assets Charter was planning to buy.