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Industry EntertainmentCable televisionMass mediaInteractive media Predecessor Turner Communications Group Key people John K. Martin (CEO & Chairman)David Levy (President) Products CNNCNN InternationalHLNTNTTurner Classic MoviesCartoon NetworkBoomerangAdult SwimTruTVTBSCNN Airport CEO John K. Martin (1 Jan 2014–) Founded 1970, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Parent organizations Time Warner, Historic TW Inc., TW UK Holdings Inc TV shows Erin Burnett OutFront, The Halloween Tree, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ve, Cartoon Alley, Sanjay Gupta MD Profiles | ||
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (known professionally as Turner Broadcasting System and also known simply as Turner) is an American media conglomerate that is a division of Time Warner and manages the collection of cable television networks and properties initiated or acquired by Ted Turner. The company was founded in 1970, and merged with Time Warner on October 10, 1996. It now operates as a semi-autonomous unit of Time Warner. The company's assets include CNN, HLN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang and TruTV. The company's current chairman and CEO is John K. Martin. The headquarters of Turner's properties are located in both the CNN Center in Downtown Atlanta and the Turner Broadcasting campus off Techwood Drive in Midtown Atlanta, which also houses Turner Studios. Across Interstate 75/85 from the Techwood campus is the original home of Turner's WTBS superstation (now separated into its TBS cable network and Peachtree TV), which today houses the headquarters of Adult Swim and Williams Street Productions.
Contents
Turner broadcasting system 40th anniversary 2010
1970s
In 1970, Ted Turner, then owner of a successful Atlanta-based outdoor advertising company, purchased WJRJ-Atlanta, Channel 17, a small, struggling Ultra High Frequency station, and renamed it WTCG, for parent company Turner Communications Group. By careful programming acquisitions, Turner guided the station to success. During December 1976, WTCG originated the "superstation" concept, transmitting via satellite to cable systems.
On December 17, 1976 at 1:00 pm, WTCG Channel 17's signal was beamed via satellite to its four cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska; Newport News, Virginia; Troy, Alabama; and Newton, Kansas. All four cable systems started receiving the 1948 Dana Andrews - Cesar Romero film Deep Waters already in progress. The movie had started 30 minutes earlier. WTCG went from being a little television station to a major TV network that every one of the 24,000 households outside of the 675,000 in Atlanta was receiving coast-to-coast. WTCG became a so-called Superstation and created a precedent of today's basic cable television.
HBO had gone to satellite transmissions to distribute its signal nationally in 1975, but that was a service cable subscribers were made to pay extra to receive. Ted Turner's innovation signaled the start of the basic cable revolution.
In 1979, the company changed its name to Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.) and the call letters of its main entertainment channel to WTBS.
1980s
On June 1, 1980, CNN was launched at 17:00 EST becoming the first 24-hour news cable channel. The husband and wife team of Dave Walker and Lois Hart news anchored the first newscast, Burt Reinhardt the then executive vice president of CNN, hired most of CNN's first 200 employees & 25-member staff including Bernard Shaw, the network's first news anchor.
In 1981, Turner Broadcasting System acquired Brut Productions from Faberge Inc.
In 1984, Turner initiated Cable Music Channel, his competition for WASEC's MTV. The channel was short-lived, but helped influence the original format of VH1.
In 1986, after a failed attempt to acquire CBS, Turner purchased the film studio MGM/UA Entertainment Co. from Kirk Kerkorian for $1.5 billion. Following the acquisition, Turner had an enormous debt and sold parts of the acquisition. MGM/UA Entertainment was sold back to Kirk Kerkorian. The MGM/UA Studio lot in Culver City was sold to Lorimar/Telepictures. Turner kept MGM's pre-May 1986 and pre-merger film and TV library Turner Entertainment Co. was founded on August 4, 1986.
On October 3, 1988, the company launched Turner Network Television (TNT).
1990s
Turner expanded its presence in movie production and distribution, first with the 1991 purchase of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio. On December 22, 1993, Turner acquired Castle Rock Entertainment. Turner purchased New Line Cinema a month later.
Turner launched Cartoon Network on October 1, 1992, followed by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) on April 14, 1994.
On October 10, 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner, a company formed in 1989 by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications. Through this merger, Warner Bros. had regained the rights to its pre-1950 library, while Turner gained access to the company's post-1950 library and other properties.
2000s
In 2003, Philip I. Kent succeeded Jamie Kellner as chairman. Operational duties for The WB were transferred by Time Warner from Warner Bros. to Turner Broadcasting during 2001, while Kellner was chairman, but were returned to Warner Bros. in 2003 with the departure of Kellner.
On February 23, 2006, the company agreed to sell the regional entertainment channel Turner South to Fox Entertainment Group. Fox assumed control of the channel on May 1, and on October 13 relaunched it as SportSouth - coincidentally, the former name of Fox Sports South when Turner owned this channel in partnership with Liberty Media between 1990 and 1996.
In May 2006 Time Warner, which had owned 50% of Court TV since 1998, purchased the remaining 50% from Liberty Media and began running the channel as part of Turner Broadcasting. The channel was relaunched as TruTV on January 1, 2008.
Also in May 2006, Ted Turner attended his last meeting as a board member of Time Warner and officially parted with the company.
On October 5, 2007, Turner Broadcasting System completed the acquisition of Claxson Interactive Pay Television Networks in Latin America.
2010s
On August 26, 2010 Turner Broadcasting took full control of Chilevisión, a TV channel owned by Chile's President Sebastián Piñera.
On September 8, 2011 Turner Broadcasting System acquired LazyTown Entertainment, the producer of the TV series LazyTown.
On January 1, 2014, John K. Martin succeeded Phil Kent as chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting.
On August 26, 2014, it was reported that Turner Broadcasting was preparing to fire 550 people before an NBA rights deal. It was further reported in October 2014 that the company planned to reduce its workforce by 10% (1,475 people) through layoffs across a wide set of units including corporate positions.
On August 14, 2015, it was announced that Turner Broadcasting had acquired a majority stake in iStreamPlanet, a Las Vegas-based video streaming services company, in an effort to bolster its over-the-top programming and shift its core technology infrastructure to the cloud. iStreamPlanet is a direct competitor of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. The deal was reported to be in the neighborhood of $200 million.
U.S. domestic
News
("CNN Philippines TV9") (HD and SD)
Movies & Entertainment
Terrestrial Broadcasting
Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media
("TV5, Boing, Animax Asia") (HD and SD)
("Cartoon Network Philippines, TV5, Boing, Animax Asia")
Interactive/broadband sites
Sports
International
Latin America
The channels in Latin America are controlled by Turner Broadcasting System Latin America, headquartered in Atlanta. It broadcasts Latin American versions of U.S. channels, and also channels that are exclusive for the region. TBS LA also handles advertising sales for Warner Channel (owned by fellow Time Warner division Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.) and for the Brazilian action sports channel Woohoo.
News and Information
(Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa)
(Asia, Middle East and North Africa)
(Asia, Middle East and North Africa)
Indian
Kids and Teens
Lifestyle
Music
Movies & Entertainment
Sports
Chinese
Other regions
Regional News
Entertainment
Animation
Movies
Former assets
* Now owned or absorbed by sister company, Warner Bros.