Advance/Newhouse May Swap Out of Discovery Communications

Advance/Newhouse Communications may pull its interest out of Discovery Communications Holding.

According to an SEC filing by Discovery Holding, which owns a 67% share of DCH, the company is in preliminary talks with Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership to exchange the latter’s 33% stake in DCH for shares in the holding company.

This in response to a posting made on an analyst’s blog in response to comments made by DHC chairman John Malone at Liberty Media’s investor day Friday, the filing said. Discovery Holding was spun off from Liberty in 2005.

The discussions are preliminary, according to the filing, and there was no probability or timing of a deal.

DCH declined to comment and officials at Discovery Holding and Advance/Newhouse were unavailable for comment.