Turner Broadcasting System

This article is about the company. For the namesake channel that was owned by this company, see TBS (American TV channel).

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
FormerlyTurner Communications Group (1965–1979)
Company typeSubsidiary
Industry
FoundedMay 12, 1965; 59 years ago (1965-05-12)
FounderTed Turner
DefunctMarch 4, 2019; 5 years ago (2019-03-04)
FateDissolved, assets dispersed to other WarnerMedia/Warner Bros. Discovery divisions
Successors
HeadquartersCNN Center,
Atlanta, Georgia
,
United States
Key people
Brands
Parent
DivisionsTurner Sports
Subsidiaries
Websiteturner.com (archived March 3, 2019)

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.[2] was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its assets are now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The headquarters of Turner's properties are 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 are 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 is 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 (CNN)—the first 24-hour news channel. It later launched a sister cable network, TNT; the professional wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the animation-centered Cartoon Network (which later spawned an adult-oriented night-time sister network in the form of Adult Swim, as well as the classic-cartoon channel Boomerang), and the classic-movie channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM). 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 (WWF, now WWE) 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 the company was broken-up on March 4, 2019, as its properties were dispersed into either WarnerMedia Entertainment (TBS, TNT, and TruTV), WarnerMedia News & Sports (CNN, Turner Sports, and AT&T SportsNet), or brought directly under Warner Bros. (Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Turner Classic Movies). On August 10, 2020, the WarnerMedia Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment assets were merged to form WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group.[3][4]

As of 2020, AT&T reported the financial results for WarnerMedia's ad-supported cable networks under the Turner business unit,[5] while also using the term "the TNets" to refer to the group of TBS, TNT, and TruTV in press releases.[6][7][8] 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.

  1. ^ Stelter, Brian (15 June 2018). "Time Warner's new name: WarnerMedia". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Turner Broadcasting System, Inc". opencorporates.com.
  3. ^ Hayes, Dade (10 August 2020). "WarnerMedia Begins Layoffs In Latest Streamlining Effort". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  4. ^ Goldberg, Lesley (7 August 2020). "Bob Greenblatt, Kevin Reilly Out Amid Major WarnerMedia Restructuring". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  5. ^ "AT&T 2020 1Q 10-Q filing". Securities and Exchange Commission. 5 May 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  6. ^ Schneider, Michael (4 May 2022). "SAG Awards Will No Longer Air on TNT and TBS After 25 Years". Variety. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  7. ^ "The TNets Launch the MORE Campaign | Pressroom". pressroom.warnermedia.com. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  8. ^ "Breaking News - The TNets Announce Summer Premiere Dates for New & Returning Series". The Futon Critic. Retrieved 16 May 2022.