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Complicated transaction advances goals of moving shopping service to cable and launching broadcast network
With the Home Shopping Network back in the Silver King Communications fold, media mogul Barry Diller can concentrate on his primary mission of starting a new programing service.
That's the underlying reason that Diller, Silver King, HSN and Liberty Media Corp. put together a circus act of a deal last week instead of waiting for resolution of regulatory issues that might have allowed a previous stock swap deal with Liberty to go ahead.
"Sometime between a year and 18 months from now, we want to program these [Silver King] stations in a tight, local, highly branded entertainment service," Diller said. "That is real growth of assets."
That goal accounted for part of the time pressure on Diller. Another, more immediate factor was an Aug. 30 deadline for swapping Liberty's control of HSN to Silver King in exchange for about a 45% interest in Silver King.
The FCC issued an order in June on how much of a broadcaster...