Silver Spring, Md. - Discovery Holding (NASD: DISCA) and Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership said on Thursday that they will combine their stakes in Discovery Communications to spin-off the cable television programmer into a new publicly traded company. John Malone, the chairman and CEO of Discovery Holding, said that the deal would "unlock the full potential and value of Discovery, and provide a broader range of options to pursue their aggressive growth strategy in the future."

Colorado-based Discovery Holding currently owns two-thirds of Discovery Communications, with Syracuse-based Advance/Newhouse owning the other third.

"As a fully public company, Discovery will be in a stronger position to grow organically and through acquisition," said David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Discovery Communications.

Discovery Communications said that it expects its management to remain the same following the deal, which is expected to close by mid-2008.

Discovery's cable networks include The Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet.

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