Turner Broadcasting System
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its assets were absorbed into Warner Bros. Discovery. The headquarters of Turner's properties were largely located at the CNN Center in Downtown Atlanta, and the Turner Broadcasting campus off Techwood Drive in Midtown Atlanta, which also houses Techwood Studios. Some of their operations were housed within WBD's corporate and global headquarters inside 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan's West Side district, and at 230 Park Avenue South in Midtown Manhattan, both in New York City, respectively.
Turner was known for several pioneering innovations in U.S. multichannel television, including its satellite uplink of local Atlanta independent station WTCG channel 17 as TBS—one of the first national "superstations", and its establishment of the Cable News Network —the first 24-hour news channel. It later launched a sister cable network, TNT; the professional wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling, the animation-centered Cartoon Network, and the classic-movie channel Turner Classic Movies. Turner South—a network devoted to regional sports and southern lifestyle programming—was launched by Turner in 1999, but was later sold to Fox Sports Networks in 2006 to form SportSouth. The same year, it acquired Liberty Media's stake in their joint venture Court TV. WCW assets were later sold to the World Wrestling Federation in 2001.
On June 14, 2018, Time Warner, including Turner Broadcasting System, was acquired by telecom firm AT&T and re-branded WarnerMedia. After the purchase, "Turner" was phased out as a corporate brand, and its properties were dispersed into either WarnerMedia Entertainment, WarnerMedia News & Sports, or brought directly under Warner Bros.. On August 10, 2020, the WarnerMedia Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment assets were merged to form WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group.
As of 2020, AT&T reported the financial results for WarnerMedia's ad-supported cable networks under the Turner business unit, while also using the term "the TNets" to refer to the group of TBS, TNT, and TruTV in press releases. On April 8, 2022, WarnerMedia merged with Discovery, Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery, and almost all of both companies' ad-supported cable networks were brought under the unit Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. continues to exist as an in-name-only subsidiary of WBD formally owning copyrights and holding contracts for former TBS assets.
History
Early history
Turner Broadcasting System traces its roots to a billboard company in Savannah, Georgia, purchased by Robert Edward Turner II in the late 1940s. Turner grew the business, which later became known as Turner Advertising Company. Robert Edward Turner's son, Ted Turner, inherited the company when the elder Turner died in 1963. After taking over the company, Ted Turner expanded the business into radio and television.Turner Broadcasting System was incorporated in Georgia on May 12, 1965.
1970s
In 1970, Ted Turner purchased WJRJ-Atlanta, Channel 17, a small, Ultra High Frequency station, and renamed it WTCG, for parent company Turner Communications Group. During December 1976, WTCG originated the superstation concept, transmitting via satellite to cable systems.HBO had gone to satellite transmissions to distribute its signal nationally in 1975, but that was a service that cable subscribers were made to pay extra to receive. Turner's innovation signaled the start of the basic cable revolution.
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 what Turner labeled a superstation, the forerunner of today's basic cable television.
In 1979, the company changed its name from Turner Communications Group to Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and the call letters of its main entertainment channel to WTBS.
1980s
On June 1, 1980, Cable News Network was launched at 5:00 p.m. EDT 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, then executive vice president of CNN, hired most of the channel's first 200 employees and 25-member staff including Bernard Shaw, the network's first news anchor.In 1981, Turner Broadcasting System acquired Brut Productions from Faberge Inc.
Also in 1981, WTBS began its usage of "Turner Time" in June 1981, in which programming began at five minutes after the top and bottom of each hour, instead of the broadcasting norm of beginning at the top and bottom of the hour.
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 film and television library as well as the Associated Artists Productions library, and the U.S./Canadian distribution rights to the RKO Pictures library. Turner Entertainment Co. was founded on August 4, 1986.
Turner Program Services, a subsidiary under the Turner umbrella, began domestic syndication of all of the properties acquired under the final disposition of the MGM deal with Kerkorian. TPS inherited over 5,000 program orders to have domestic syndication agreements prepared and sent in order to "formally" contractually license films for airing on domestic, free-over-the-air television stations throughout the United States. The contractual "back-log" was caught up by the end of 1989, while still administering to all of a domestic television station's syndication needs. In 1987, top-rated television network NBC was considered bidding for a piece of the company in an effort to enter the cable business, but the deal was never materialized.
In 1989, TBS Management Company, under the leadership of Charles Shultz, advanced the focus on the two music performing rights subsidiaries: one with Broadcast Music, Inc and ASCAP. In the space of 1989 to 1994, Turner went from 2 subsidiary music publishing companies to no less than sixteen.
On October 3, 1988, the company launched Turner Network Television.
1990s
Turner Broadcasting System expanded its presence in movie production and distribution, first with the 1991 purchase of the Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears animation studios during a competitive bid with MCA/Universal, Hallmark Cards, and several other corporations. On December 22, 1993, Turner Broadcasting System acquired Castle Rock Entertainment. Turner Broadcasting System purchased New Line Cinema a month later.Turner Broadcasting System launched Cartoon Network on October 1, 1992, followed by Turner Classic Movies on April 14, 1994.
In September 1995, Turner Broadcasting System began airing World Championship Wrestling 's Monday Nitro on TNT, beginning the Monday Night War against the World Wrestling Federation 's Monday Night Raw. Three years later, TBS Superstation began airing WCW Thunder.
On October 10, 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner, a company formed in 1990 by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications, and which had held 20% of Turner Broadcasting System in the past. Through this merger, Warner Bros. had regained the rights to its pre-1950 library, while Turner Broadcasting System gained access to the company's post-1950 library and other properties.
2000s
On April 1, 2000, Turner Broadcasting System launched Boomerang as a sister channel to Cartoon Network featuring the classic cartoons that originally aired on Cartoon Network as the channel was gradually shifting its focus to original cartoons.Time Warner Entertainment merged with America Online in 2001 to form AOL Time Warner, which was renamed back to the Time Warner name in 2004.
In March 2001, Jamie Kellner would officially succeed Ted Turner as head of Turner Broadcasting System. One of Kellner's most notable actions after succeeding Turner was his decision to cancel WCW's television programs.
In September 2001, Cartoon Network launched Adult Swim as an adult-oriented programming block that would air at midnight when Cartoon Network's target demographic would be asleep. It would go on to be very successful. Since 2005, Adult Swim is considered its own network according to Nielsen due to Adult Swim and Cartoon Network's differing demographics.
In 2002, Turner started a joint venture with Zee Entertainment Enterprises known as Zee Turner for distribution of their channels in India.
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 January 1, 2004, Turner launched Pogo in India as a sister channel to Cartoon Network India. The channel is exclusive to South Asia.
On February 23, 2006, Turner 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.
On March 2, 2009, Turner launched Real, the company's first Hindi GEC, in India as a joint venture between it and Alva Brothers Entertainment, which it had partnered with before for content on Cartoon Network India and Pogo TV. The joint venture was known as Real Global Broadcasting. The channel shut down in March 2010, lasting for a year due to low viewership.
On December 8, 2009, it was announced that Turner had bought a majority stake in NDTV Imagine Ltd. from NDTV, for $117 million, as the company's own channel, Real had failed. NDTV Imagine Ltd. was previously a joint venture between NDTV and NBCUniversal. Turner then went on to acquire 92% of NDTV Imagine Ltd. which included NDTV Imagine, NDTV Lumiere, Imagine Showbiz and NDTV Imagine Pictures. Turner dropped the NDTV branding from the channels. Turner sold Imagine Showbiz to Reliance Broadcast Network in 2011.