Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (unaudited) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2019	Mar. 31, 2018
Income Statement [Abstract]
Revenue (notes 3, 5 and 17)	$ 2,868.0	$ 3,063.5
Operating costs and expenses (exclusive of depreciation and amortization, shown separately below):
Programming and other direct costs of services	800.4	847.1
Other operating (note 13)	419.4	462.0
Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) (note 13)	532.2	535.4
Depreciation and amortization	939.6	1,040.7
Impairment, restructuring and other operating items, net (notes 14 and 16)	70.9	60.7
Operating costs and expenses	2,762.5	2,945.9
Operating income	105.5	117.6
Non-operating income (expense):
Interest expense	(367.3)	(375.3)
Realized and unrealized losses on derivative instruments, net (note 6)	(82.8)	(211.3)
Foreign currency transaction gains (losses), net	138.6	(101.7)
Realized and unrealized losses due to changes in fair values of certain investments and debt, net (notes 5, 7 and 9)	(8.2)	(57.2)
Share of results of affiliates, net (note 5)	(70.9)	(36.5)
Other income, net	6.0	7.2
Non-operating income (expense)	(384.6)	(774.8)
Loss from continuing operations before income taxes	(279.1)	(657.2)
Income tax expense (note 11)	(27.8)	(710.0)
Loss from continuing operations	(306.9)	(1,367.2)
Earnings from discontinued operations, net of taxes (note 4)	322.6	188.6
Net earnings (loss)	15.7	(1,178.6)
Net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interests	(8.7)	(7.9)
Net earnings (loss) attributable to Liberty Global shareholders	$ 7.0	$ (1,186.5)
Basic and diluted loss from continuing operations attributable to Liberty Global shareholders per share (note 15) (in dollars per share)	$ (0.43)	$ (1.70)