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Liberty Media Corp. showed improved second-quarter operating results across its three portfolios of media and ecommerce businesses on Friday, with results at its struggling home-shopping network, QVC, posting a smaller drop in revenue than it did the past few quarters.

Its Starz Entertainment business continued to post strong results, but its subscriber count fell 3% from the first quarter in a sign that pay-TV subscribers may be dropping access to premium movie channels in the economic downturn.

Starz President Bill Myers said on a conference call with analysts following the release that given uncertainty about the economy, he couldn't predict whether Starz would see further erosion in its subscribers.

Liberty, which is controlled by media mogul John Malone, didn't repurchase shares in any of its three business units, each with their own tracking stock.

Shares of Liberty Interactive (LINTA LINTB), which track QVC, rose 13% to $8.38 on hopes that the home shopping network is feeling the beginning of an economic recover, while the other tracking stocks had lesser gains.

Liberty doesn't report consolidated net earnings for the entire company, but the company said its overall operating income, excluding depreciation and amortization, rose 17% to $505 million.

By that same measure, Liberty Interactive - which also tracks Backcountry.com, Bodybuilding.com and its holdings in IAC/InterActive Corp. (IACI), Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. (TKTM) and Expedia Inc. (EXPE) - posted a slight increase to $412 million. Revenue decreased 1% to $1.9 billion.

Liberty Entertainment (LMDIA LMDIB) - which tracks Starz Entertainment, Liberty Sports Group and its majority holdings in DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV) - posted a 54% in operating income before depreciation and amortization to $105 million. Revenue gained 8% to $296 million.

Shares of Liberty Entertainment added 14 cents to $27.47.

Liberty Capital (LCAPA LCAPB) - which tracks Starz Media, TruePosition, the Atlanta Braves baseball team and holdings in Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SIRI), Time Warner Inc. (TWX), Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) - posted operating income before depreciation and amortization of $44 million, reversing a loss in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 14% to $199 million.

Shares of Liberty Capital added 5.9% to $17.06.

President and Chief Executive Greg Maffei said QVC, Liberty's largest business, which has been struggling with a slowdown in consumer spending, posted an "improved financial performance." Its second-quarter revenue fell 4.4% to $1.68 billion, including a 2% drop in the U.S. Excluding items, operating income before depreciation and amortization fell 3.6%.

The home-shopping company has been moving to cut inventory levels and limit extending credit to help lower bad-debt costs. Facing a cash shortage after the financial crisis, QVC renegotiated agreements with creditors on its $4.5 billion debt load in June. It retired $750 million in near-term maturities, using $250 million in cash from QVC and $500 million that it borrowed from Liberty's two other business units.

QVC President and CEO Mike George noted the U.S. results were an improvement over the last few quarters, when revenue had been down between 9% and 12%.

At Starz Entertainment, earnings before depreciation and amortization jumped 54% as revenue grew 7.6% on subscription growth.

Fitch Ratings said in June that Liberty Media will be weaker when it splits off Liberty Entertainment, which also owns 56% of DirecTV, in the fourth quarter. DirecTV has said it will merge with majority shareholder Liberty Entertainment in a move that some analysts view as paving the way for a sale of the satellite TV provider.

In February, Liberty lent Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SIRI) $530 million for a 40% stake to keep the satellite radio company run by Mel Karmazin from falling into bankruptcy. Maffei said Friday that bankruptcy is no longer a prospect for Sirius, which reported a wider quarterly loss and a subscriber decline on Thursday even as it raised its earnings outlook for the year.

"We're convinced [the company has hit bottom] - the [second-quarter] results seem to demonstrate that," Maffei said.

-By Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2472; nat.worden@dowjones.com

(Kerry Grace Benn contributed to this story)