CNN founder Ted Turner will receive the News and Documentary Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement at a ceremony at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall in September, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced Thursday.
“In my over 30 years of working in the television industry, there is no man that has made a bigger or more long-lasting impact on the world of television news than Ted Turner,” said Bob Mauro, President of NATAS, in a statement. “His vision, leadership and flawless execution and launch of CNN was and is unparalleled in the industry. CNN, the world’s first 24/7 cable news network, revolutionized the industry in ways that continue to reverberate across the globe and throughout the television landscape.”
Turner began his career as an account executive with Turner Advertising Company and entered the television business in 1970 when he acquired Atlanta independent UHF station channel 17. In 1976, Turner purchased Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves and launched TBS Superstation, originating the “Superstation” concept. In 1977, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. acquired the National Basketball Association’s Atlanta Hawks and in 1980 Turner launched CNN, the world’s first live, 24-hour global news network.
Over the next two decades, the company built a portfolio of cable television news and entertainment brands and businesses, including CNN Headline News, CNN International, TNT, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. In the mid-’90s, Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema became Turner Broadcasting properties. In October 1996, the company merged with Time Warner Inc., and in 2001, Time Warner merged with AOL to create AOL Time Warner. The company later changed its name back to Time Warner Inc.
Turner has also made his mark as a philanthropist in the U.S. with his Turner Foundation.