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The temptation would be to use the proceeds to plug strategic gaps in Europe, perhaps by pursuing richly valued cable assets like Kabel Deutschland, Spain's Ono or even a combined Liberty Global/Virgin Media.
Recent viewer studies indicate that the perceived value of cable programming far exceeds the actual cost to cable customers.
Here's one more way of looking at the value of cable assets: Take the enterprise value of a public cable company (interest-bearing debt plus market value of stock, minus cash on hand), then divide that figure by the number of subscribers.
"Gerry knows the value of cable distribution," Mr. Gerbrandt said.
"Vodafone's move confirms the strategic value of cable," said Akhil Dattani, an analyst with JPMorgan Chase in London.
Arriving at a time when the phone company's stock price was plunging and the value of cable systems was sliding as well, Liberty drove a hard bargain.
But to extract that kind of value from cable systems, a sports channel would need a roster of highly desirable events.
Speaking in the afternoon, Robert A. Iger, president and chief operating officer of Disney, called Mr. Robbins's comments "comic relief," adding that the emphasis on ESPN's cost belied its value to cable operators in attracting subscribers and selling local advertising.
But given the historical value of cable subscribers, we have significant headroom.
In b1 we assume a more optimistic value for cable power losses, i.e. 0.05 dB per meter, and zero time measurement.
