Ted Turner, Media Innovator Who Built CNN and Turned Braves Into ‘America’s Team,’ Dies at 87

Ted Turner, the former Atlanta Braves owner and media entrepreneur who turned the Braves into a national television brand through TBS and founded CNN, died Wednesday at 87.

CNN, citing a Turner Enterprises news release, reported that Turner “died peacefully … surrounded by his family.” Turner Enterprises announced his death Wednesday. Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III was born Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati.

For sports fans, Turner’s significance went far beyond ownership. After buying the Braves in 1976, he used nationwide distribution on TBS to beam the team’s games across the country, helping make the franchise “America’s Team” and changing how televised sports could reach audiences far beyond a club’s home market.

The Braves, in a public statement, credited Turner with reshaping the franchise’s identity and reach: “Ted's visionary leadership and innovative approach to broadcast television transformed the Braves into ‘America’s Team.’”

Turner was also one of the most consequential figures in modern television. He acquired an independent Atlanta UHF station in 1970, a local broadcast outlet that later became WTCG and then WTBS. In 1976, he used satellite distribution to turn it into the national “superstation” TBS, a move that dramatically expanded both the station’s audience and the exposure of the teams it carried. Four years later, in 1980, he founded CNN, the first 24-hour cable news network, in what became his signature media achievement. Turner Broadcasting was sold to Time Warner in 1996, and he remained briefly as vice chairman.

His impact on the Braves extended well beyond the novelty of national broadcasts. The franchise won the 1995 World Series and, under the ownership structure Turner put in place, produced 14 consecutive division titles from 1991 to 2005, one of the defining sustained runs in modern baseball.

CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson said Turner’s influence remained foundational to the network he created: “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. 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.”

In later life, Turner disclosed in 2018 that he was living with Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurological disorder. He was also known as a major philanthropist and conservationist, including a $1 billion pledge to the United Nations in 1997.