This could be the right time to remake Starz again. The company currently consists of Starz Entertainment, which includes the premium networks and broadband service, and Starz Media, which holds the production and distribution units, with Clasen managing the whole pipeline. (That structure was created in 2006, when Liberty acquired the entertainment assets of IDT.) Each is in a different tracking stock, which helps make whether they belong together in one company a recurring question. Liberty CEO Greg Maffei has said before that there are a variety of considerations. Longtime observers of Liberty know that some of those considerations are about taxes; if it doesn’t work tax-wise, it doesn’t happen.

Clasen’s retirement marks the second major CEO opening for a Liberty Media company: the DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) CEO post has been vacant since Chase Carey left earlier this summer as president and CEO to become vice-chairman and COO of News Corp (NYSE: NWS). Malone has said Rupert Murdoch owes him a favor. Maybe someone at News Corp. fits the bill for Starz.