...I didn't actually, but thanks anyway
That was all from memory. If I had done my research before posting, I would've altered a couple of things especially the bit about Malone owning a stake of Discovery Networks. He owns the whole lot, not just a stake.
Re Malone's relationship with Murdoch, as far as I know there isn't one. They are powerful businessmen competing against each other in the same industries. I can't imagine though, that Murdoch is overkeen on him as Malone did try and make a grab for News Corp.
Sorry, but I didn't understand the bulk of what you saying about Sky and vm affiliating with each other and paying for content in their own company.
Sky and vm are competitors and will never affiliate with each other on any level and competition law ensures it stays like that. My titbit was thrown in for others to speculate, but potentially vm and sky might use the same software platform that their epgs are written on. Whether Murdoch would want to pay fees to Malone for the use of the software is debatable.
What would be interesting is that if Malone did buy vm, Malone would control a huge bulk of channels on both Sky and vm. Whether this would cause additional arguments between Sky and vm, or whether peace and love would break out, is something I would follow eagerly.
It is by no means certain that Malone would buy vm as many others are interested. What you can be assured of is that things would be interesting, for customers too... Malone has been known to raise prices 2 or 3 times in a year, if he feels like it...
Don't forget Malone is not new to the uk cable industry. He was the majority shareholder in the company that become Telewest and look what happened to that.... it went bust. Perhaps second time lucky.