Ted Turner attends the CNN launch event in Atlanta, Ga., on June 1, 1980.

Ted Turner, who died on April 6, 2026, was bright, shrewd and, most of all, lucky. The cable TV visionary proved to be in the right place, at the right time, to change television and video news forever.

Most of his big gambles, on things such as the MGM studio and library, which led to the creation of the Turner Classic Movies channel, paid off handsomely.

Originally published on theconversation.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.