John Malone dominated the U.S. cable-TV industry as CEO of TCI. But the European TV market is different. Endemol doesn’t work with a single pay-TV provider in the Netherlands.

Monopolist. Bully. Cowboy. John Malone has heard it all before. As he dominated the U.S. cable-TV industry for much of the past three decades, the CEO of Denver-based TeleCommunications Inc. (TCI) was called plenty of names, including some that can’t be printed here.

Skeptics said he was naive to thinkā€¦