Liberty Media (Malone) Spin Offs

[yanks2402]

Liberty Media (Malone) Spin Offs [Discovery, Ascent Media ]

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Symbol=US:L&Feed=PR&Date=20050315&ID=4305086

With Liberty Media spinning-off 1 major and 1 moderate asset, they don't have too many other (Just Starz-Encore and a few minor ones) assets left.

Malone was quoted saying that he would not invest his money. With Liberty Media spinning off some assests, to me that signals they are getting ready to invest in another assest and do not want to drag down the more powerful assests (Discovery), same idea with Cablevision wanting to spin Voom so it would not drag down the main stock.

 

[James Long]

Malone was quoted saying that he would not invest his money.

Yeah. It might be easier to invest other people's money? Got a billion?

JL

 

[gutter]

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Symbol=US:L&Feed=PR&Date=20050315&ID=4305086

With Liberty Media spinning-off 1 major and 1 moderate asset, they don't have too many other (Just Starz-Encore and a few minor ones) assets left.

Malone was quoted saying that he would not invest his money. With Liberty Media spinning off some assests, to me that signals they are getting ready to invest in another assest and do not want to drag down the more powerful assests (Discovery), same idea with Cablevision wanting to spin Voom so it would not drag down the main stock.

That does have some interesting possibilities. One can always wish upon a STARZ!

 

[Bruce]

That does have some interesting possibilities. One can always wish upon a STARZ!

Starz is the worse company to have anything to do with HD, remember John J. Sie, founder, Chairman, and CEO of Starz Encore Group comments about HD, he did not think it was a big deal and wanted to offer STARZ! Hi-Res instead, the "high-resolution, DVD-quality version of STARZ! in a 480i, 16:9 format with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. This will allow cable and DBS operators to offer viewers a picture quality substantially superior to conventional digital broadcast video, but using only one-third the digital bandwidth of high-definition."

And based on new actions, dropping EncoreHD and only one new Saturday movie premiere in HD on StarzHD for both March and April, it shows they care about HD. :shocked

 

[Sean Mota]

Agreed. StarzHD has become slowly but surely Starz ETV (Enhanced TV).

 

[James Long]

... offer STARZ! Hi-Res instead, the "high-resolution, DVD-quality version of STARZ! in a 480i, 16:9 format with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

EDTV formats are underrated. I hope we see more broadcasters move to ED in the future. Some things just don't need HD. High quality movie channels need to be HD - and on that note why is no one doing 1080p24 for movies? 1080i30 is a resample - why not keep the film's frame rate?

I expect we will see a lot more ED in the future. Perhaps HBO E/W in 720p HD and all the other HBO channels in 480p 16:9 ED. But not for a couple of years (lest all SD viewers get letterboxed). There is a balance between available bandwidth, number of channels desired, and quality. As much as one would put down the Starz! approach, there is a valid place for the middle formats and 720p HD. Given the choice between a blocky "HD lite" attempt at 1080i and a solid 720p the 720p would be better. It is all tradeoffs.

JL

 

[Sean Mota]

EDTV formats are underrated. I hope we see more broadcasters move to ED in the future. Some things just don't need HD. High quality movie channels need to be HD - and on that note why is no one doing 1080p24 for movies? 1080i30 is a resample - why not keep the film's frame rate?

I expect we will see a lot more ED in the future. Perhaps HBO E/W in 720p HD and all the other HBO channels in 480p 16:9 ED. But not for a couple of years (lest all SD viewers get letterboxed). There is a balance between available bandwidth, number of channels desired, and quality. As much as one would put down the Starz! approach, there is a valid place for the middle formats and 720p HD. Given the choice between a blocky "HD lite" attempt at 1080i and a solid 720p the 720p would be better. It is all tradeoffs.

JL

I do not have a problem with a channel advertising itself to be ED. I have a problem with a channel stating they are an HD channel and have their saturday premiere movies ED. This is not a basic package channel. This is a premium channel and it is supposed to be HD!

 

[bryan27]

Turn that frown upside down at least Starz-ED is better than a Starz analog upconvert to SD

Just trying to keep positive.

I do agree it shouldn't be advertised as HD. At least Fox on OTA will tell me if something is "Widescreen Enhanced Digital"

 

[gutter]

PBS HD also tell you if it is HD or just widescreen. I have been wondering about some of the content on Discovery HD. Is it all HD all the time or is some an upconvert?

 

[James Long]

I do not have a problem with a channel advertising itself to be ED. I have a problem with a channel stating they are an HD channel and have their saturday premiere movies ED. This is not a basic package channel. This is a premium channel and it is supposed to be HD!

Then I agree. Starz! needs to promote itself as it is as a "ED" service - or become what the title means.

JL

 

[jbphoenix]

S&P cuts Liberty Media to junk on spin offs

"S&P cuts Liberty Media to junk on spin offs
Tue Mar 15, 2005 03:24 PM ET
NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's on Tuesday cut Liberty Media Corp. (L.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to junk, citing its planned spin off of Discovery Communications Inc. and Ascent Media Group Inc. without proportion cuts in debt.
S&P cut the senior unsecured debt rating to "BB-plus," the top junk rating, from "BBB-minus," the bottom investment-grade rating.

The outlook is stable, S&P said.

"With this transaction, Liberty and creditors lose a stable, high-quality, high-growth asset, on the heels of the spin-off in 2004 of the company's international cable TV and related assets, into which Liberty had transferred significant cash and other investments," S&P said.

Cuts to junk can dramatically raise a company's borrowing costs"

Something is going on within Liberty Media... Why would you want to do a spinoff just to leave your stock with a "Junk" rating from S&P?

Whatever happens will happen, I just hope to still be watching V* come April 1...

 

[DucTape]

PBS HD also tell you if it is HD or just widescreen. I have been wondering about some of the content on Discovery HD. Is it all HD all the time or is some an upconvert?

We are all getting a solid dose of upconvert in our daily diets.

Just look into when any certain film makers have invested in high def cameras and anything made prior is upconvert.

 

[Bruce]

We are all getting a solid dose of upconvert in our daily diets.

Just look into when any certain film makers have invested in high def cameras and anything made prior is upconvert.

Wow, where did you get your info, 35mm film has a higher resolution then HD.
If you just base the transfer as far as resolution goes, then HD is a down-convert from film ( but there is a lot more that goes into a transfer ), there are a lot of web sites that explain this.

35mm film negative can easily be rated at as high a resolution as 4096x2987 for Academy Aperture. The "2K" level is considered half resolution of 2048x1493 for Academy Aperture. The visual effects industry has been working at the "2K" level for years, usually with less vertical resolution due to the masked horizontal aspect ratios the filmmakers have chosen of 1.85 or larger (a horizontal rectangle).

 

[vurbano]

I dont think he understands the difference between a transfer and an upconvert.

 

[richard_rd]

I do not have a problem with a channel advertising itself to be ED. I have a problem with a channel stating they are an HD channel and have their saturday premiere movies ED. This is not a basic package channel. This is a premium channel and it is supposed to be HD!

In my family/theatre room I have a 57" Hitachi CRT RP HDTV and an InFocus 4805 projector displaying on a 106" screen. To be honest with you i prefer to watch my Voom HD programing on the Projector, which converts the 1080i/720p signal to 480p, then on the Hitachi. The large 3D like image that the DLP projector gives blows the 57" non-3D picture from the Hitachi CRT RP HDTV away.

The projector setup cost me around the same as the 57" HDTV ($1,800 each). Can't wait for HiDef DLP Projectors to come down in price to around $3000, currently they cost $6000+++.

 

[Lobstah]

"Can't wait for HiDef DLP Projectors to come down in price to around $3000, currently they cost $6000+++."

Not really. There are several projectors that do native 720p for under $2K. The Z3 is one of them.

Lob

 

[richard_rd]

"Can't wait for HiDef DLP Projectors to come down in price to around $3000, currently they cost $6000+++."

Not really. There are several projectors that do native 720p for under $2K. The Z3 is one of them.

Lob

That is not a DLP projector, it uses LCD technology (terrible blacks, washed out colors, and no 3D pop in the image). I much prefer a good 480p DLP projector like the InFocus 4805 over any HiDef LCD projector!!!!

Like i said originally, I can't wait for the price on HiDef DLP projectors to come down in price to under $3000.