Founder of NCS, inventor of cable TV ‘superstation’ dead at 87
Published 9:24 am Thursday, May 7, 2026
Ted Turner, founder of NCS and Turner Broadcasting System, has died.
He was 87.
“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement,” NCS CEO Mark Thompson mentioned in an announcement to People.
“He was and always will be the presiding spirit of NCS. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.”
Born Robert Edward Turner III on Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Turner moved at the age of 9 to Savannah, Ga., the place his father ran a billboard promoting firm, in accordance with (*87*).
Following his father’s loss of life in 1963, Turner took over the household enterprise, Turner Advertising. In 1970, he entered the TV enterprise.
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Turner invented the “superstation” in 1975, which used a satellite tv for pc to broadcast the TV channel that went on to change into Turner Broadcasting System, or TBS.
The following 12 months, Turner bought the Atlanta Braves so he may broadcast the Major League Baseball crew’s video games on his station, the outlet reported.
In 1980, Turner created NCS, the primary 24-hour information community.
Turner bought Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner in 1996 for $7.3 billion in inventory. He served as vice chairman of the corporate till 2003 and resigned from the board in 2006, in accordance with (*87*).
Turner was additionally an internationally recognized yachtsman; a philanthropist who based the United Nations Foundation; an activist who sought the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons; and a conservationist who grew to become one of the foremost landowners within the United States, taking part in an important function in reintroducing bison to the American west, NCS wrote.
In 1990, Turner based the Turner Foundation to assist environmental causes and helped launch the animated collection Captain Planet and the Planeteers that very same 12 months to advertise environmental activism amongst younger audiences.
Turner was named TIME journal’s Man of the Year in 1991 and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame that very same 12 months.
He later gained a Peabody Award in 1997 and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Communication in 2000.
His daughter Laura Turner Seydel referred to as her father a “real-life Captain Planet” in an interview with PEOPLE in 2021.
Turner revealed in a 2018 interview with CBS Sunday Morning that he had been identified with Lewy physique dementia, which is brought on by irregular protein deposits that construct up over time and disrupt regular mind perform.
“It’s a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer’s,” he mentioned.
“It’s similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer’s is fatal. Thank goodness I don’t have that.”
Turner is survived by his 5 youngsters, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, in accordance with NCS.