Commitments and Contingencies (Unrecorded Purchase Obligation) (Details) $ in Millions	Mar. 31, 2020 USD ($)
Unrecorded Unconditional Purchase Obligation [Line Items]
Remainder of 2020	$ 2,003.2
2021	1,383.0
2022	520.2
2023	106.2
2024	70.7
2025	76.3
Thereafter	698.0
Total	4,857.6
Programming commitments
Unrecorded Unconditional Purchase Obligation [Line Items]
Remainder of 2020	857.7
2021	823.7
2022	337.1
2023	21.9
2024	13.8
2025	13.9
Thereafter	15.8
Total	2,083.9
Network and connectivity commitments
Unrecorded Unconditional Purchase Obligation [Line Items]
Remainder of 2020	574.0
2021	332.7
2022	123.1
2023	53.8
2024	39.6
2025	37.5
Thereafter	681.1
Total	1,841.8
Purchase commitments
Unrecorded Unconditional Purchase Obligation [Line Items]
Remainder of 2020	552.2
2021	219.5
2022	56.9
2023	30.0
2024	16.9
2025	24.5
Thereafter	0.0
Total	900.0
Other commitments
Unrecorded Unconditional Purchase Obligation [Line Items]
Remainder of 2020	19.3
2021	7.1
2022	3.1
2023	0.5
2024	0.4
2025	0.4
Thereafter	1.1
Total	$ 31.9

Unrecorded Unconditional Purchase Obligation Balance On Sixth Anniversary

No definition available.

Name:	lbtya_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceOnSixthAnniversary
Namespace Prefix:	lbtya_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Unrecorded unconditional purchase obligation balance on sixth anniversary and thereafter.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	lbtya_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceOnSixthAnniversaryAndThereafter
Namespace Prefix:	lbtya_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of the fixed and determinable portion of the unrecorded unconditional purchase obligation maturing in the fifth fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 440
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=77896938&loc=d3e25336-109308

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceOnFifthAnniversary
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of the fixed and determinable portion of the unrecorded unconditional purchase obligation maturing in the fourth fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceOnFourthAnniversary
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of the fixed and determinable portion of the unrecorded unconditional purchase obligation maturing in the second fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceOnSecondAnniversary
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of the fixed and determinable portion of the unrecorded unconditional purchase obligation maturing in the third fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceOnThirdAnniversary
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of the unrecorded obligation to transfer funds in the future for fixed or minimum amounts or quantities of goods or services at fixed or minimum prices (for example, as in take-or-pay contracts or throughput contracts).

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceSheetAmount
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of the fixed and determinable portion of the unrecorded unconditional purchase obligation maturing in the remainder of the fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationDueInRemainderOfFiscalYear
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationByCategoryOfItemPurchasedAxis=lbtya_ProgrammingCommitmentsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationByCategoryOfItemPurchasedAxis=lbtya_NetworkandConnectivityCommitmentsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationByCategoryOfItemPurchasedAxis=lbtya_PurchaseCommitmentsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationByCategoryOfItemPurchasedAxis=lbtya_OtherCommitmentsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: