NCTA: Liberty Media creates ITV subsidiary

Cable television programming giant Liberty Media is moving into the U.S. interactive television market via a new subsidiary, Liberty Broadband Interactive Television, and could be on the verge of making a move into the U.S. service provider business.

Liberty also said it was buying a controlling interest in OpenTV for $185 million in cash and stock and was in a preliminary agreement to buy the 84% stake of ACTV that it does not already own.

Liberty, which is chaired by cable mogul John Malone, will now have control of the company that builds software to drive 24 million set-top boxes around the world, including about 5.5 million used by SkyDigital in the U.K. Liberty software already controls set-top boxes used by cable companies NTL and Telewest, in which it owns a stake. Speculation at this week’s National Cable Show was running high that Liberty is attempting to force a merger between the two and take full control.

NTL this week filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a plan to swap $10.6 billion in bond debt into a controlling equity stake. NTL’s operations are in Europe, but the company is based in New York. The company listed $16.8 billion of total assets and $23.4 billion of total debts in its filing.

Liberty, which this year withdrew its cable TV service provider plans for Germany, is also thought to be in the market for U.S. cable properties and might be a lead buyer for the 2.75 million subscribers Adelphia Communications has put up for sale as part of its financial restructuring.

--Jim Barthold, Senior Editor