SRINAGAR: Ted Turner, the media entrepreneur who founded CNN, has died at the age of 87, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing a statement from Turner Enterprises.
Turner is credited with revolutionising television news through the launch of CNN in 1980, the world’s first 24-hour cable news channel. He also founded WTBS, which introduced the “superstation” model in cable broadcasting, and later established Turner Network Television (TNT).
Over several decades, he expanded his media interests through multiple acquisitions and business ventures, helping to shape the rapid growth of the cable television industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Widely known for his outspoken nature, Turner was given nicknames such as “The Mouth of the South” and “Captain Outrageous”. Paying tribute, Mark Thompson said Turner “was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN” and described him as “the giant on whose shoulders we stand.”
According to CNN, Turner is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His death was also confirmed by a family spokesperson to The New York Times.
