billion (a library that includes Warner Bros. films made before 1948 and other films as well). This purchase caused such a drain on the finances that Turner nearly foundered, but cable operators helped bail the company out because they recognized the importance to them of CNN and TBS. Turner next created the Turner Network Television (TNT) channel, a cable channel geared to the presentation of the film classics in the film library Turner had purchased, followed by Turner Classic Movies, presenting the same movies without commercial interruption. On December 29, 1995, the company will add CNN Financial. Entertainment is the major earner for the company and provides nearly half the revenues.
CNN began distribution in Europe in 1985 and also added a Spanish-language version of Headline News in 1988 (Headline News is a second news station for cable operated by Turner Broadcasting to provide shorter news broadcasts on a 24-hour basis). In 1990 Turner licensed television rights to hundreds of MGM/PathT films and cartoons and launched the SportSouth sports network. In 1991 TNT instituted Latin American operations. In 1992 Turner signed a deal to create the first independent TV station in Moscow (Hoover's Handbook of American Business 1993: p. 546). In 1992 Turner launched the Cartoon Network, a cable station providing 24-hour broadcast of cartoons from the MGM library and elsewhere.
The much-touted "information superhighway" that will bring exciting new communications capabilities may be getting closer to being a reality, but there are still many questions to be answered about what the new systems will entail, what services they will offer, what services the consumer will support, what technologies will be needed, how soon they will be available, and so on. Much about the new information superhighway is uncertain, and comparisons that have been made to existing communications systems and technologies may be interesting and m...