After running the family company, Turner Advertising, in the 1960s and 1970s, Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980 to join his existing network, Superstation. He put CNN on satellite, a novelty at the time, and revolutionised the cable industry in the process.

In the 1980s, he failed to buy NBC and CBS, but acquired MGM's film library to provide content for Turner Network Television (TNT). But the price of this $1.6 billion (€1.5 billion) deal was selling a third of the company's stock in 1987 to 14 cable operators including Time Warner and TCI.

In 1996, Mr Turner agreed a merger with Time Warner in which he became Time Warner vice-chairman.