HOLLYWOOD — Darth Vader is back — and he looks to be building the Death Star.
John Malone, whose byzantine cable-TV deals earned him the moniker, has Hollywood buzzing about a new plot to build Starz and his other farflung assets into a powerful media empire.
After years of buying cable operators and other companies that distribute content, Malone is now targeting companies that own or produce programming.
The billionaire investor set tongues wagging last week when he bought a stake in Lionsgate, the force behind "The Hunger Games" film franchise and AMC's hit "Mad Men."
The stock-swap deal gives the Liberty Media chairman, who is also Starz' largest shareholder, a seat on the board of the independent studio and a 3.4 percent ownership interest. In exchange, Lionsgate gets a 4.5 percent stake in Starz.
"This has to be about content people want, and Lionsgate has a lot of that," said one studio executive.
Aligning Starz with Lionsgate makes sense in a new streaming world where consumers can pick which content to watch from an array of Internet-delivered services instead of a traditional pay-TV bundle.
In short, Malone envisions a future where consumers will have "random access" to hit shows online as an alternative to the so-called multichannel universe.
The pact with Lionsgate is widely seen as a precursor to a more transformative deal that could align the studio with other companies in Malone's orbit.
"Lionsgate could be part of a broader content play," said one source.
Malone could use Lionsgate's movies and TV programming as a global content springboard to feed his pay-TV assets, including cable operator Charter Communications and Virgin Media in the UK.
Lionsgate's largest shareholder, Mark Rachesky, with a 37 percent stake, would have to be on board with such an idea.
Rachesky is keen on partnering with Malone and seeing where it could go, according to sources.
Malone has said Starz would be better off as part of a bigger media company, and he has searched for a buyer since he split it off from Liberty Media in 2013.
Lionsgate was among the potential buyers for Starz. At the same time, the studio has also been seen as a takeover target.
Similarly, Lionsgate, along with Viacom and MGM, is an owner of Epix. Starz could unite with Epix, although Viacom is said to be happy with the current structure.
Meanwhile, Malone could look at other ways to grow his firepower.
Les MoonvesPhoto: Getty Images
Whatever his master plan, it's a given that Malone will look to leverage Lionsgate's content to boost Starz and help the premium channel better compete with rivals HBO and Showtime as well as streaming players like Netflix and Amazon, according to analysts.
Starz is losing the pay-TV rights to Disney movies, including Pixar and Marvel films, to Neflix next year.
Lionsgate's pay TV rights, however, aren't locked up with one single player.
"John likes the Lionsgate guys. He's always been a scale player and an aggregator of assets," said one source.
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