Richard Morgan

Liberty Media chief John Malone looks as if he wants to snatch his cable crown back from Comcast’s Brian Roberts.

Malone’s plans to spin off Liberty’s cable broadband holdings into a separate public company, not merely a tracking stock, has set off speculation that he’s seeking to emulate Roberts’ empire building.

The tip-off came earlier when Malone shelved plans to issue a tracking stock to spin off Liberty’s 26.4 percent stake in Charter, the fourth-largest cable company, according to National Alliance Securities’ analyst Robert Routh. That the tracking stock is being replaced with an asset-backed security has Routh thinking the spun-off entity -- to be named Liberty Broadband Group -- can conveniently merge with Charter itself.

That’s when the fun would begin. A Liberty-controlled Charter could set about replicating Roberts’ success with his Comcast-NBCU combination, Routh said, by checking any interest that Fox Broadcasting, Time Warner or Viacom might have in reprising the role of NBCU.