00:00Media visionary Ted Turner, who transformed television news by founding CNN and helped usher in the era of cable networks,
00:07has died. He was 87.
00:09Turner died Wednesday, according to a statement from his family released by Turner Enterprises.
00:14He passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after battling Lewy body dementia in recent years.
00:20A larger-than-life figure in media, Turner reshaped the industry with bold, often risky moves.
00:25In 1980, he launched CNN, the world's first 24-hour news channel, investing $21 million into what skeptics initially marked
00:33as the Chicken Noodle Network.
00:35By 1985, CNN turned profitable and later became a global force, notably for its live coverage of the Persian Gulf
00:42War.
00:43Before CNN, Turner built his empire from a struggling Atlanta UHF station he rebranded as a, quote, national superstation, laying
00:52the groundwork for Turner Broadcasting.
00:54He went on to launch cable staples, including TNNT, Turner Classic Movies, and Cartoon Network, fueled in part by his
01:01billion-dollar acquisition of the MGM, United Artists Film Library, and Hanna-Barbera.
01:07Turner sold his company to Time Warner in 1995 for $6.5 billion, later serving as vice chairman before being
01:14pushed out following the company's merger with AOL, a deal he once famously called, quote, better than sex, a remark
01:21he later regretted.
01:22Known for his outspoken personality, Turner earned nicknames like Mouth of South and Captain Outrageous, often courting controversy with his
01:30blunt remarks.
01:31But he was equally known for his philanthropy, donating $1 billion to the United Nations and hundreds of millions more
01:37to environmental causes through the Turner Foundation.
01:39Beyond media, Turner was a sportsman and an entrepreneur, owning the Atlanta Braves and Hawks, winning the America's Cup in
01:461977 and creating the Goodwill Games.
01:49In later years, he became one of the largest private landowners in the United States, with a vast ranching operation
01:56that included tens of thousands of bison.
01:58Born in Cincinnati in 1938, Turner took over his father's billboard business after his father's death and expanded it into
02:05a media empire that changed how the world consumes news and entertainment.
02:09Turner is survived by his five children.
02:12For more on this story, be sure to head over to thehollywoodreporter.com.
02:15This is The Hollywood Reporter News.
02:21The Hollywood Reporter News.
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