Discovery Communications and cable co Liberty Global have agreed upon a deal, “in principle and subject to documentation,” that will see the companies each take a 3.4% stake in Lionsgate.

Under the deal, each company will pay approximately US$195 million to purchase 5.0 million shares in Lionsgate. In addition, Liberty Global’s president and CEO Mike Fries and Discovery Communications’ president and CEO David Zaslav will each have a seat on Lionsgate’s board of directors.

Each party will enter into separate commercial agreements with Lionsgate, “for a preferred partner relationship with respect to licensing rights for certain theatrical and television content across their markets,” according to a release announcing the deal.

The share acquisitions are expected to close later today (Nov. 10). Santa Monica-headquartered Lionsgate is the company behind the Hunger Games film franchise and such television properties as Orange is the New Black and Mad Men.

“One of Discovery’s advantages is our ownership in a diverse portfolio of global content and IP, which uniquely positions the company to deliver an audience across multiple media ecosystems,” said Discovery CEO Zaslav in a statement.

“Lionsgate has created a strong television business and we are proud to take this ownership stake to gain access to terrific storytellers, creative leadership, and global formats and IP, in both nonfiction and scripted programming. As with all of our creative partners, we look forward to telling world-class stories with Jon and the deep management team at Lionsgate, and further strengthening Discovery’s content pipeline across our linear and digital platforms around the world,” he continued.

The announcement came as Lionsgate released its second quarter results for 2016. The company reported revenues of $476.8 million, down from $552.9 million recorded for the same quarter last year. Overall motion picture revenue was $354 million, down from $398 million from a year prior. Television revenue within the segment was also down to $59.9 from $69.4 million. Lionsgate attributed these losses to the timing of episodic television deliveries, as well as shifting the wide release of Sicario into October.

– From realscreen, with files from Julianna Cummins