(15)  Employee Benefit Plans

Liberty is the sponsor of the Liberty Media 401(k) Savings Plan (the “Liberty 401(k) Plan”), which provides its employees and the employees of certain of its subsidiaries an opportunity for ownership in the Company and creates a retirement fund. The Liberty 401(k) Plan provides for employees to make contributions to a trust for investment in Liberty common stock, as well as several mutual funds. The Company and its subsidiaries make matching contributions to the Liberty 401(k) Plan based on a percentage of the amount contributed by employees. In addition, certain of the Company’s subsidiaries have similar employee benefit plans. Employer cash contributions to all plans aggregated $17 million, $13 million and $15 million for each of the years ended December 31, 2017,  2016 and 2015, respectively.