Ted Turner

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Ted Turner (2007)

Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III. (Born November 19, 1938 in Cincinnati ) is an American media entrepreneur who was primarily active in the television sector and founded the news channel CNN .

Family and education

Turner grew up in Savannah , Georgia . Until 1956 he attended the McCallie School in Chattanooga , Tennessee . He graduated with a diploma from Brown University in Providence . His father, who owned the Turner Advertising Company (TAC), took his own life in 1963, after which Turner took over management. He turned out to be a successful businessman.

Turner 1992 with his then wife Jane Fonda

Turner has been married three times and has five children. All three marriages were divorced. He dated Judy Nye from 1960 to 1964 and with Jane Shirley Smith from 1965 to 1988. From 1991 to 2001 Turner was married to actress Jane Fonda .

Television programs

He started Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in 1970 and ran the company until 1996. His television programs were successful. He recognized the possibilities of cable television early on, which meant that his station TBS could be seen all over the United States. In 1980 he founded the cable news network (CNN) and wrote media history with it. In 1985, he founded CNN International , laying the foundation for the spread of CNN around the world. CNN became world famous with reports on the Gulf War in 1991. Since then, the station has lived from reporting current world events.

In the late 1980s, Turner got into the booming wrestling business .

In 1995, he merged his television company with Time Warner and became vice president of the cable division. During the dot-com bubble , AOL merged with Time Warner. Turner initially retained his post and resigned on January 29, 2003.

Film business

After a failed attempt to buy up the US television broadcaster Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Turner took over the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and its subsidiary from Kirk Kerkorian in 1986 for a purchase price of 1.5 billion dollars United Artists (UA). With the takeover, Turner went into debt immensely. He had no choice but to resell parts of the takeover. The name and all trademark rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and almost the entire United Artists, including their film library, were sold back to Kirk Kerkorian. The former MGM film studio in Culver City went to Lorimar . Turner retained all rights to the MGM's film library. This includes almost all films produced by MGM before 1986. In addition, there are some United Artists films and the rights held by United Artists Television, for example to the television series Gilligans Insel , the film library of RKO Pictures and the rights to the films produced by Warner Bros. before 1948. These had been bought up in the 1950s by the predecessor company of United Artists Television - the Associated Artists Productions.

In 1986 he founded Turner Entertainment Co. to exploit all of the film rights he controlled. This large film library enabled the two television stations Cartoon Network and Turner Network Television (TNT) to be founded.

Sports

sailing

Turner also made a name for himself as a successful regatta sailor. In 1974 he and Dennis Conner won the America's Cup for the USA on the sailing yacht Courageous (US 26), designed by Olin Stephens . With his own sailing yacht Tenacious he achieved many regatta victories, including the Fastnet Race at Cowes Week in England. For his achievements in the America's Cup, he was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame as an Inductee (honorary member) in 1993.

baseball

In 1976 Turner took over the MLB team Atlanta Braves and led them until 2007. The team plays their home games at Turner Field , which is after him. Under him, he won the World Series in 1995 .

Land and bison breeding

Turner owns 8,000 km² (2 million acres , about half the area of Thuringia ), the second largest private land area in the United States after John C. Malone with around 8500 km². Among Turner's estates spread across the Mountain States and the Midwest is a ranch in New Mexico covering 2,500 square miles. Many of these lands serve his hobby, bison breeding . With around 50,000 animals, the world's largest private bison breeder keeps around a seventh of the world's population of these animals. He runs the restaurant chain Ted's Montana Grill with 44 restaurants in 16 US states (as of November 2012), in which, among other things, bison meat is served. The company advertises with its ecological attitude. A large part of the energy is obtained from solar collectors and the restaurant equipment is 99% plastic-free.

Social Commitment

A $ 1 billion donation from Turner enabled the United Nations Foundation to be established in 1998 . One of the goals of the foundation is to improve the payments made by the US Congress to the United Nations .

Turner argues that global warming is caused by population density being too high. In this context he advocates regulating the world population through a one-child family policy. China is the model for him.

Awards

In 1991, Turner was the first media entrepreneur to be named Man of the Year by American Time magazine . 2000 awarded him the United States Sports Academy in Daphne , Alabama , the honorary doctorate . In 2001 he was awarded the Emperor Has No Clothes Award from the Freedom From Religion Foundation .

capital

Turner is a billionaire. On the list of the richest people in the world by Forbes Magazine, he ranks 847 with approximately 2.2 billion US dollars in assets (as of August 2015).

He has joined The Giving Pledge charity .

Web links

Commons : Ted Turner  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

supporting documents

  1. ^ RE "Ted" Turner, 1993 Inductee. In: America's Cup Hall of Fame. Accessed August 30, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b Turner Ranches FAQ. ( Memento of November 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: TedTurner.com (English). Version of November 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive .
  3. ↑ Katharine Q. Seelye: For Land Barons, Acres by the Millions. In: The New York Times , January 28, 2011.
  4. ↑ Turner Ranch Map. ( Memento of July 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: TedTurner.com (English). Version of July 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive .
  5. ↑ Ted's Montana Grill. ( Memento of October 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: TedTurner.com (English). Version of November 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive .
  6. ^ Shawn McCarthy: Ted Turner Urges Global One-Child Policy to Save Planet. In: The Globe and Mail , December 5, 2010.
  7. ^ Ted Turner, Man of the Year | Jan. 6, 1992. Magazine cover. In: Time.com (English).
  8. ^ Honorary Doctorates. In: ussa.edu. United States Sports Academy, archived from the original on May 4, 2014 ; accessed on May 4, 2014 .
  9. ^ Emperor Has No Clothes Award. Ted Turner - 2001. In: Freedom from Religion Foundation .
  10. ^ The World's Billionaires. # 847 Ted Turner. In: Forbes Magazine , accessed August 30, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Turner, Ted
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Turner, Robert Edward III. (Full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American media entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Cincinnati , USA