Ted Turner ‘Going for Class’ on New Cable Network--TNT

Although he was unable to pin down specific production deals in time for a 10 a.m. news conference, communications mogul Ted Turner was in determinedly good spirits Tuesday after a meeting with Hollywood’s production community to discuss his newest cable-TV project, Turner Network Television (TNT).

With a projected start date of Oct. 3, the TNT entertainment network will join a list of Turner cable ventures that includes Cable News Network, CNN Headline News and Atlanta Superstation TBS.

After a morning meeting at the Bel Air Hotel with 100 producers, studio officials and others to discuss original programming for TNT, Turner said he had “a bunch of deals cooking” for movies and miniseries and expects to announce the first of them later this week.

Turner predicted that the 24-hour-a-day cable channel will be available in 15 million homes when it debuts and that it should break even in 1990. Contending that it will not usurp the role of Superstation TBS, he said TNT will provide a home for the library of 2,000 films he owns and feature original entertainment programming that he believes will be of higher quality than standard network fare.

The network will spend $38 million on new production in its first year, Turner said, escalating to $230 million in 1992. Questioned about how far he thought $38 million would go at Hollywood’s production prices, he said that in its first year TNT will feature only one new movie or miniseries per month.

“We’re going for class, not mass,” he said.

The fact that TNT will be funded with advertising revenues and cable operator fees, rather than just advertising dollars, will allow TNT to provide superior programming, Turner said.”We don’t have to go for ratings points,” he said. “We’re not going to have the tyranny of being totally dependent on advertising revenues.”

Turner said he told the Hollywood execs that he was looking for “uplifting” programming rather than “gratuitous violence and sleazy sex.” He said TNT programming would “inform, inspire, enlighten and entertain” and cited such fare as “Roots,” “Shogun,” “Masada,” “Gone With the Wind” and “The Sound of Music” as examples of what TNT is aiming for.

Turner added that, although he saw TNT as a much smaller entity than the three networks, it might eventually bid for exclusive coverage of such major events as the Academy Awards. And although TNT will feature no news programming, Turner said, some TBS sporting events might move to TNT.

Turner, who has been embroiled in a dispute with movie directors over the colorization of films, joked that TNT would “produce its first film in black-and-white, then color it.”