John Malone, chairman and controlling shareholder of Liberty Media Corp. (LCAPA, LINTA, LMDIA), said Friday he'll be watching Comcast Corp.'s (CMCSA) efforts to close a deal with General Electric Corp. (GE) for media conglomerate NBC Universal to gauge the extent to which the federal government "will interfere or not interfere" in the process.

At Liberty Media's annual shareholders' meeting, Malone responded to a question about negotiations between Comcast and GE by noting that his company got its start by using media distribution assets to invest in cable networks.

"I’ve always believed that the power of distribution combined with the ability to create content creates quite a bit of value opportunity," said Malone. "Over the years, that has been diminished by regulatory limitations."

Malone said it will be interesting to see how Comcast fares in getting a deal for NBCU through the current regulatory environment, which is expected to be stricter under the administration of President Barack Obama. He said regulatory burdens could outweigh the potential benefits of such a deal for the cable giant.

If not, "every major distributor will be looking at opportunities to go vertical and follow suit because it is a fairly straight-forward way to create value," Malone said.

Liberty has reportedly expressed interest in a deal for NBCU - which owns broadcast and cable networks, a film studio and theme parks - but Liberty Media executives didn't say whether they've held any negotiations on that front at the meeting.

Sources have confirmed that Comcast is negotiating with GE about taking a majority interest in NBCU.

Malone said "there’s going to be massive restructuring and consolidation in old media," and his company is trying to figure out what opportunities that may present.

"These are historic times in terms of technology finally changing what are profound lifetime experiences," Malone said. "The world is dramatically changing, and the question is how do each of our units adapt to that. What alliances, partnerships or investments should we be making to ride the wave instead of getting drowned by the wave?"

Malone's right-hand man, Liberty Media Chief Executive Greg Maffei, credited companies like Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) for capitalizing on the tectonic shifts taking place in the media industry, but he said the Internet has destroyed more value in Corporate America than it has created.

"It’s a handful [of companies] that have hit the homerun versus the long tail of destruction," Maffei said. "For the most part, the consumer has really benefited from all this. Not the companies."

In the case of Liberty Media, Maffei acknowledged some mistakes but said the company has "avoided the most crazy media stupidities."

"Avoiding the pitfalls and the big dollar losses is really where we’ve succeeded," he said.

Liberty Media is expected to merge its majority holdings in DirecTV Group Inc. (DVT) with the satellite TV giant in order to simplify its ownership structure. Analysts have speculated the transaction could be a prelude to a sale of DirecTV to a telecommunications company, like AT&T Inc. (T).

On Friday, Malone said DirectTV will have a new chief executive "within the next month or two." Its former chief executive, Chase Carey, was recently hired as chief operating officer and vice chairman at News Corp. (NWS, NWSA), which publishes this newswire and The Wall Street Journal.

Malone said maintaining "a close and long-lasting relationship with the telcos is an important part of the CEO's job, whether that results in a transaction or an extension" of the existing partnerships.

-By Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2472; nat.worden@dowjones.com