But the company shut down broadcasts to its only subscriber base—listeners in India and southern Africa, mainly in South Africa—after Liberty Media assumed control.

That leaves Liberty Media two orbiting satellites, a third satellite ready to be launched, and L-band broadcast frequency covering a huge swath of the globe.

Samara, WorldSpace’s founder, was an early executive of satellite broadcaster XM before leaving to start WorldSpace in 1990.

XM merged with Sirius, the other U.S. satellite radio broadcaster, in 2008. The collapse of the auto and finance markets coincided with the merger, and Sirius XM was on the verge of defaulting on its debt in early 2009.

Charlie Ergen, founder of Dish Network, was angling to take over Sirius XM if it defaulted. Mel Karmazin, Sirius XM CEO, and Maffei negotiated a $530 million Liberty Media rescue that gave Liberty Media warrants it can convert into a controlling 40 percent stake in the company.

Liberty Media is exploring whether it will buy the rest of Sirius XM after its standstill agreement expires in a year, Maffei said.

In the last two years, Liberty Media and its executives have acquired control of the largest shareholder stakes in Live Nation-Ticketmaster, DirecTV, Sirius XM, and, now, WorldSpace.

Those companies represent the largest live music management and ticketing company, the leading U.S. satellite TV company, and the sole satellite radio companies in domestic and international markets.

Malone has spoken of the potential to tie in Live Nation’s live concert and talent management with pay-per-view satellite broadcasts on television.

Now, with the ability to beam satellite radio around the world, Liberty Media has an even grander theoretical platform it could use.

But that isn’t the company’s strategy; it’s making individual investments with the best chance to make returns for Liberty Media investors, Maffei said.

“Whether those kinds of things evolve, that’s the glorious future—but I wouldn’t bet on that,” he said.

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