Liberty’s John Malone Eyes Content Consolidation

Billionaire John Malone, fresh from helping engineer a mammoth cable-TV merger, is examining ways to consolidate studios and smaller channels to better compete as the traditional TV bundle begins to unravel.

He said Lions Gate Entertainment, a studio where he is a director and owns roughly 3%, could play a significant role in any roll-up of companies that produce or distribute programming. Indeed, he believes a union between Lions Gate and Starz, the premium cable channel in which he has a big voting stake, could be in the mix. Asked if TV channel owners including Scripps Networks Interactive or AMC Networks could be among the potential targets for Lions Gate, Malone said they could, but said coming to terms with the controlling shareholders in those companies could be difficult.