HBO, FX Lead Critics’ Choice TV Awards — But … 
Hammond On Cannes: A New Day Comes To The Fest As HBO and … 
Cannes: Lionsgate Acquires U.S. On Guillaume Canet’s … 
Toronto Fest Lands World Preem Of Godfrey Reggio’s … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry … 
Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including … 
UPDATE: Apple CEO Challenged For Moving “Crown … 
ESPN Layoffs Could Reach 400 As Part Of Latest Disney Cuts 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Up … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Wolverine’ 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
UPDATE, 12: 00 PM: No word from Starz execs about when they might announce a digital streaming deal to replace the one with Netflix, which expires in February. “There are a lot of conversations going on,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht told analysts today. “It’s a road that needs to be evaluated almost on a weekly basis.” The company hopes to license programs from its premium channel to a premium-priced streaming service – meaning, one that charges more than Netflix. As more companies enter the online video market “they’ll begin to segment and differentiate,” says Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei. “That’s something we would embrace.” Albrecht said that “we didn’t believe it was appropriate to have our products included in a low-cost service.” Do they really expect lots of consumers to pay high prices in this weak economy — especially with the anemic numbers cable and satellite companies are posting for premium channels? At Starz the 3Q sub figure was READ MORE »
UPDATE: Starz Looks For A Premium Streaming Service To Replace Netflix
John Malone Becomes The No. 1 Land Owner, Passing Ted Turner
Ted Turner seems destined to be one-upped by his longtime ally, Liberty Media’s John Malone. First it was in media, where Malone remains a player long after Turner was pushed out of Time Warner. Now Malone has passed Turner … Read More »
Liberty Media Anticipates A Premium Tier For Online Video
It’s “more likely than not” that new online video streaming providers such as Amazon will offer some programming on a premium tier — a contrast with Netflix’s single-price package – Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said this morning at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia conference. He broadly hinted that his company’s desire to charge extra for Starz was a big reason why the premium channel recently ended negotiations to extend its carriage deal with Netflix. The current arrangement, he says, is “inconsistent” with the way consumers receive Starz on pay TV.
More broadly, Maffei says that Liberty is on track to split off its Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz tracking stocks by tomorrow now that it has beat back a court challenge by bondholders. The deal transfers some assets to the spun-off companies, violating some bond agreements. But the Delaware Supreme Court yesterday upheld a lower court decision that said the split-off is OK because it isn’t part of what it called an “overall scheme” to hurt bondholders. That likely won’t change the overall strategy for the company that’s controlled by the famously tax-averse former cable titan John Malone — and that some analysts say is little more than a portfolio of stock holdings. “Finding things to buy at attractive prices is the biggest chalenge we have today,” Maffei says. Read More »
Liberty Turns Page On Takeover Bid, Instead Invests $200M Into Barnes & Noble
In May, John Malone’s Liberty offered to buy all of Barnes & Noble for $1B. But the offer stalled and the book retailer said Thursday that the takeover talks had been ditched in light of the $204M investment agreement. … Read More »
Liberty Media Says Starz Hits A Record 19M Subs In 2Q While QVC Rebounds
The odd collection of stocks controlled by John Malone’s Liberty Media are enjoying a nice pop today after the company reported generally upbeat 2Q data. Shares of Liberty Starz are up 5.2% at mid-day. The company says that … Read More »
Fox News Is Scorned, and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts Praised, At Media Awards
Seems there’s no way to avoid Fox News these days. Rolling Stone and New York Magazine have big stories about the network. And Fox was very much on the minds of the media elite who gathered in NYC today for … Read More »
Does Liberty Media’s Malone Have A Vision?
Those who remember Liberty Media Chairman John Malone from the days when he was the swashbuckling King of Cable like to think of him as a strategic mastermind who still wants to shape the future of media. But lately he’s looked like a guy … Read More »
Liberty Media Bids For Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble said today that John Malone’s Liberty Media, whose holdings include entertainment businesses as diverse as QVC, Starz Media and Sirius XM Radio, has offered to buy the nation’s biggest bookstore chain for $1.02 billion. The $17-per-share offer … Read More »
Liberty Media’s John Malone Says Cable Is ‘Pretty Much A Monopoly’ In Broadband
Liberty Media chairman John Malone is probably getting an earful from his pals in the cable industry this afternoon after he made a comment that’s sure to haunt both him and them. Talking to Wall Street analysts about the growing number of consumers who buy high-speed Internet services from cable companies, Malone said that “cable is pretty much a monopoly now” in broadband. Oops. The executive who once was considered such a monopolist in cable TV that Al Gore referred to him as Darth Vader caught himself, adding, “I don’t want to use that word.” But he may be reminded that he used the M word every time consumer advocates call on federal regulators to crack down on cable — for example, by insisting on net neutrality rules. Malone says consumers won’t cut the cord with cable even as services including Netflix offer movies and TV shows over the Web. Phone companies such as Verizon and AT&T “are not going to aggressively” build out fiber-optic services that could match the speed and security of cable’s broadband, he said. Meanwhile, “the threat of wireless broadband is way overblown. There just isn’t enough bandwidth” for them.
In contrast to Malone’s blunt comments, other Liberty executives said they wouldn’t provide many details about Starz’s new lawsuit against Dish Network. Starz, and in a separate suit Disney, allege that Dish violated their contracts by giving satellite customers free access to the premium channel for about a year. Starz CEO Chris Albrecht says that his company didn’t lose money; Dish pays a fixed annual rate to offer Starz and Encore. But the additional viewers may have helped Starz’s ratings. Read More »
TOLDJA!: Ron Perelman’s Deluxe Buys Majority Of John Malone’s Ascent Media
UPDATE: Deal was announced at 5 PM tonight. Press release below.
EXCLUSIVE: Ascent Media is the international conglomerate offering integrated digital media services including digital asset management, post production, content duplication and distribution services that was spun off as a … Read More »
It Was A Thriller In Delaware For Diller
News reports say the Delaware court has ruled against Liberty Media’s John Malone in his effort to block Barry Diller from splitting InterActiveCorp into multiple companies. Well, at least Malone managed to land some down ‘n’ dirty … Read More »
Diller vs Malone: Sumo Wrestling In Court
What I find delicious in that Delaware trial of Barry Diller vs John Malone is this: you can take the mogul out of Hollywood, but you can’t take Hollywood out of the mogul. Look, everyone knows that Diller is … Read More »
-
Marketplace
News/Opinion Poll
Loading ...Box Office Poll
Loading ...