Who was Ted Turner?

• Ted Turner, a television pioneer who transformed the news business by launching CNN and introducing the 24-hour cable news cycle, passed away on May 6. He was 87.

• He helped reshape the television industry in the late 20th century.

• Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in November 1938, Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III went to a military boarding school in Tennessee, and then attended Brown University, but was expelled before graduating.

• Turner took over his father’s billboard business.

• After buying a number of radio stations, Turner’s purchase of a struggling Atlanta station in 1970 was his first move into television.

• Ten years later, that became the flagship of his nationwide Turner Broadcasting System, the profits from which he parlayed into the launch of CNN.

• Cable News Network (CNN) was launched in 1980 as the first 24-hour cable news network, gaining traction in the United States and later internationally.

• The launch came as viewers were shifting from broadcast to cable and CNN became a key source of news during the 1990-1991 Gulf War, delivering extensive live coverage using satellite technology.

• Turner became one of the most powerful figures in US media and entertainment, his networks specialising in news, sports, and old movies.

• Turner’s television empire expanded beyond CNN and included TBS and TNT channels for sports and entertainment, Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network, among others.

• In the 1970s he owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association and skippered his yacht the Courageous to the America’s Cup.

• Turner also became one of the world’s leading environmentalists, one of the largest land owners in the United

States, and a major philanthropist, giving $1 billion to the United Nations.