Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (unaudited) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2021	Mar. 31, 2020
Income Statement [Abstract]
Revenue (notes 3, 4, 5 and 16)	$ 3,615.3	$ 2,875.8
Operating costs and expenses (exclusive of depreciation and amortization, shown separately below):
Programming and other direct costs of services	1,110.6	855.1
Other operating (note 13)	524.1	420.1
Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) (note 13)	676.7	505.5
Depreciation and amortization	634.2	783.5
Impairment, restructuring and other operating items, net	44.4	31.0
Operating costs and expenses	2,990.0	2,595.2
Operating income	625.3	280.6
Non-operating income (expense):
Interest expense	(335.1)	(313.3)
Realized and unrealized gains on derivative instruments, net (note 6)	811.1	1,237.3
Foreign currency transaction gains, net	303.1	391.7
Realized and unrealized gains (losses) due to changes in fair values of certain investments and debt, net (notes 5, 7 and 9)	194.6	(529.8)
Losses on debt extinguishment, net (note 9)	0.0	(54.5)
Share of results of affiliates, net (note 5)	1.7	33.4
Other income, net	10.1	52.4
Non-operating income (expense)	985.5	817.2
Earnings before income taxes	1,610.8	1,097.8
Income tax expense (note 11)	(170.5)	(80.1)
Net earnings	1,440.3	1,017.7
Net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interests	(54.9)	(67.9)
Net earnings attributable to Liberty Global shareholders	$ 1,385.4	$ 949.8
Basic earnings (loss) from continuing operations attributable to Liberty Global shareholders per share (in USD per share)	$ 2.41	$ 1.51
Diluted earnings (loss) from continuing operations attributable to Liberty Global shareholders per share (in USD per share)	$ 2.37	$ 1.50