Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments (Notes)

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Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments (Notes)	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2013
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]
Investment [Text Block]	Investments in Available-for-Sale Securities and Other Cost Investments All marketable equity and debt securities held by the Company are classified as available-for-sale ("AFS") and are carried at fair value generally based on quoted market prices. GAAP permits entities to choose to measure many financial instruments, such as AFS securities, and certain other items at fair value and to recognize the changes in fair value of such instruments in the entity's statement of operations (the "fair value option"). The Company previously entered into economic hedges for certain of its non-strategic AFS securities (although such instruments were not accounted for as fair value hedges by the Company). Changes in the fair value of these economic hedges were reflected in the Company's statement of operations as unrealized gains (losses). In order to better match the changes in fair value of the subject AFS securities and the changes in fair value of the corresponding economic hedges in the Company's financial statements, the Company elected the fair value option for those of its AFS securities which it considers to be non-strategic ("Fair Value Option Securities"). Accordingly, changes in the fair value of Fair Value Option Securities, as determined by quoted market prices, are reported in realized and unrealized gains (losses) on financial instruments in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations. Investments in AFS securities, including Fair Value Option Securities separately aggregated, and other cost investments are summarized as follows:   March 31, 2013   December 31, 2012   amounts in millions Fair Value Option Securities         Time Warner Inc. $ 255   211   Time Warner Cable Inc. 227   230   Viacom, Inc.  223   192   CenturyLink, Inc. 63   70   Barnes & Noble, Inc. 275   262   Other equity securities 78   58   Other debt securities 74   56       Total Fair Value Option Securities 1,195   1,079 AFS and cost investments         SIRIUS XM debt securities (a) —   249   Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. ("Live Nation") debt securities 24   25     Other AFS and cost investments 47   39       Total AFS and cost investments 71   313   $ 1,266   1,392 (a) During the three months ended March 31, 2013, as discussed in note 1, Liberty acquired an additional 50 million common shares and acquired a controlling interest in SIRIUS XM and as a result consolidates SIRIUS XM as of such date. Therefore, the related SIRIUS XM debt securities are considered effectively settled upon consolidation. Unrealized Holding Gains and Losses Unrealized holding gains and losses related to investments in AFS securities are summarized below.   March 31, 2013   December 31, 2012   Equity securities   Debt securities   Equity securities   Debt securities   amounts in millions Gross unrealized holding gains $ 6   1   2   37 Gross unrealized holding losses $ —   —   —   — Liberty reclassified approximately $40 million of previously unrealized gains in the condensed consolidated statement of operations in gains (losses) on transactions, net for the three months ended March 31, 2013 due to the application of purchase accounting and the effective settlement of SIRIUS XM debt securities previously accounted for as available-for-sale securities through other comprehensive earnings (loss). Additionally, Liberty had no securities in a loss position greater than a year.