Media

John Malone: Why media consolidation looms

John Malone: Scale very important in media space (full interview)
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John Malone: Scale very important in media space (full interview)
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John Malone on M&A: Stability comes from scale
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John Malone on M&A: Stability comes from scale

Liberty Media Chairman John Malone said Thursday he wouldn't be surprised to see more consolidation in the sector as global scale becomes increasingly important and makes big companies look smaller.

"You could argue there's going to be some combinations. ... Whether it's computer software or television content, scale is very important. You make [content] once and you distribute it enormously," he told CNBC in an interview on "Squawk on the Street."

"Who does the consolidating, how it happens, when it happens, who knows? But clearly there is still room in the media sector to create some bigger and ... in particular more global entities."

Malone made his comments during Liberty's annual investor day in New York, two days after Liberty and Discovery Communications — whose largest shareholder is Malone — each took a 3.4 percent stake in Lions Gate Entertainment, the entertainment company behind "The Hunger Games" films.

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Though he didn't name a potential buyer, the media investor said the size and scale of four technology giants — Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook — and the two telecom companies — AT&T and Verizon — now dwarf traditional media companies.

"Even Disney is small in market cap when you compare them with Apple or now Amazon or Facebook … or Google," he said.

He pointed to cable company Comcast, following its acquisition of NBCUniversal, as an example of the success a large service provider can achieve by picking up content assets.

"If nothing else it creates a level of stability from an investor point of view. It makes Comcast the most investable public stock because you've got hedges going internally in the company between what's going to happen to content, what's going to happen to distribution."

DISCLOSURE: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.