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Table of Contents

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 * Introduction & Quick Facts
 * Early life
 * Media empire
 * Philanthropist, conservationist, and sportsman

Read More
David Sarnoff
CNN
Tom Yawkey
Table Of Contents

BiographiesEntrepreneurs


TED TURNER

American entrepreneur
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Written and fact-checked byThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have
extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that
content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify
and edit content received from contributors.

Updated: Nov. 15, 2024•Article History
Table of Contents

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 * Introduction & Quick Facts
 * Early life
 * Media empire
 * Philanthropist, conservationist, and sportsman

Read More
David Sarnoff
CNN
Tom Yawkey
Table Of Contents
Open full sized image

Ted Turner, 2011.
© Albert H. Teich/Shutterstock.com
byname of:Robert Edward Turner III
born:November 19, 1938, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. (age 85)
Awards And Honors:Peabody Award (1997)America’s Cup (1977)
Notable Family Members:spouse Jane Fonda

Ted Turner (born November 19, 1938, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) is an American
broadcasting entrepreneur, philanthropist, sportsman, and environmentalist who
founded a media empire that included several television channels that he
created, notably CNN.

(Read Ted Turner’s Britannica entry on the U.N. Foundation.)


EARLY LIFE

Turner grew up in an affluent family; his father owned a successful
billboard-advertising company. In 1956 Turner enrolled at Brown University but
was expelled three years later, reportedly for having a woman in his dormitory
room. Turner joined the family business, which was based in Atlanta, and became
the general manager of one of the company’s branch offices in 1960. Following
his father’s suicide in 1963, Turner took over the ailing business and restored
it to profitability.

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MEDIA EMPIRE

In 1970 Turner purchased a financially troubled UHF television station in
Atlanta, and within three years he made it one of the few truly profitable
independent stations in the United States. In 1975 Turner’s company was one of
the first to use a new communications satellite to broadcast his station (later
renamed WTBS, or TBS, the Turner Broadcasting System) to a nationwide cable
television audience, thereby greatly increasing revenues. To reflect the
business’s shift from billboards, Turner renamed it Turner Communications
Company, and in 1979 the venture became known as Turner Broadcasting System,
Inc. Turner went on to create two other highly successful and innovative cable
television networks: CNN (Cable News Network; 1980), the first 24-hour news
channel, and TNT (Turner Network Television; 1988). Through the Turner
Broadcasting System, he also purchased the Atlanta Braves major league baseball
team in 1976 and the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team in 1977. In 1986
he bought the MGM/UA Entertainment Company, which included Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s
library of more than 4,000 films. Turner set off a storm of protest when he
authorized the “colourizing” of some of the library’s black-and-white motion
pictures.

Open full sized image

UN Photo

The large debt burden sustained from these purchases compelled Turner to almost
immediately sell off not only MGM/UA but also a share of the Turner Broadcasting
System, Inc., though he retained control of it. He also kept ownership of the
MGM movie library, which included many Hollywood classics. In 1991 he married
actress-activist Jane Fonda; they divorced in 2001.

Turner resumed the expansion of his media empire in the 1990s with the creation
of the Cartoon Network (1992) and Turner Movie Classics (1994). He also oversaw
the purchase (1993) of two motion-picture production companies, New Line Cinema
and Castle Rock Entertainment. In 1996 the media giant Time Warner Inc. acquired
the Turner Broadcasting System for $7.5 billion. As part of the agreement,
Turner became a vice-chairman of Time Warner and headed all of the merged
company’s cable television networks. When Time Warner merged with Internet
company AOL in 2001, Turner became vice-chairman and senior adviser of AOL Time
Warner Inc. In 2003 he resigned as vice-chairman of that company, and three
years later Turner announced that he would not seek reelection to its board of
directors.


PHILANTHROPIST, CONSERVATIONIST, AND SPORTSMAN

Turner was a noted philanthropist and environmentalist. He donated some $1
billion to establish (1998) the United Nations Foundation, and he created (2001)
the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which sought to prevent the use of weapons of
mass destruction. He provided extensive funding to conservation efforts through
his Turner Foundation (created 1990). Turner was one of the largest landowners
in the United States, and many of his ranches were involved in sustainability
and ecotourism. He oversaw efforts to rebuild and promote the country’s bison
herd, and in 2002 he cofounded Ted’s Montana Grill, a restaurant chain that
reportedly had the world’s “largest bison menu.” He also cocreated and cowrote
the animated children’s series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–96),
which centres on teenaged environmental activists.

In addition, Turner was an avid sportsman, especially known as a yachtsman. He
piloted Courageous to win the America’s Cup in 1977. He also founded and
sponsored the Goodwill Games (1986–2001), citing his hope of easing Cold War
tensions through friendly athletic competition.

Turner was the recipient of numerous honours, including a Peabody Award in 1997.
In 2006 he received the Bower Award for Business Leadership from the Franklin
Institute—a premier science and technology education and development centre in
Philadelphia. In April 2007 Junior Achievement—a nonprofit educational
organization that provides hands-on business training programs to youths
throughout the world—inducted Turner into its U.S. Business Hall of Fame. In
2008 Turner released his autobiography, Call Me Ted.

In 2018 Turner announced that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised
and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.



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