RESHAPING THE MEDIA BUSINESS : If the Wolves Have Money, Open the Door

If, as current reports say, Time Warner and Tele-Communications Inc. want to split up Turner Broadcasting, it’s because founder Ted Turner may want to sell his company at this time.

Two months ago, Turner was reported to be in talks with Capital Cities/ABC, with Paramount Communications and with CBS about joint ventures and even merger. Turner is said to be interested in film studios because he has definite ideas about the kind of movies that will attract a mass audience worldwide.

So in one sense, the report about Time Warner, TCI and Turner in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday was yet another indication of flux in the global media business, where big companies are jockeying for position in new markets whose precise outlines are not even known.

But more interesting than corporate maneuvering is what the reports say about the vision of the 54-year-old entrepreneur at the heart of it all, Robert E. (Ted) Turner III, who built the company that owns Cable News Network and several other cable TV networks from a single Atlanta station in less than 30 years.

Turner’s vision may well be that when buyers are coming to your door, it’s time to entertain thoughts of selling--even an asset as valuable as CNN.

At the very least, Turner knows he’s in a strong position in a market full of buyers, so he may be looking to shake off the control of big shareholders such as Time Warner and TCI.

Regarded only a decade ago as an eccentric businessman with a low-budget, all-news cable channel, Turner and his company, Turner Broadcasting, have come into their own. The company took in $1.8 billion in revenue last year, and the stock market values its properties--CNN, Headline News, the TBS superstation and the TNT and Cartoon networks--at about $4.5 billion. It would bring a lot more in a corporate bidding contest.

One motive for Turner’s current actions is probably impatience with big company partners. Directors from Time Warner, the film, cable and publishing giant, and TCI, one of the nation’s largest cable operators, have held veto power over Turner’s actions since 1987, when they rescued his company from being taken over because of debt taken on to buy MGM’s film library.

Turner, who has always stepped to his own tune, has chafed under their caution. That’s why one media company executive said Tuesday that “Ted’s having lots of conversations. I think he wants to figure out a way to control his assets and get rid of his handlers.”

Or it could be that Turner sees CNN at a peak of value now and about to encounter stiff and expensive competition in world news from the recently announced joint venture of Capital Cities/ABC with the British Broadcasting Corp. That venture, thanks to BBC’s position in Hong Kong and India, has a greater hold on markets in fast-growing Asia than does CNN.

But one thing can be said for sure: At a time when cable and video communications are expanding worldwide, and into a 500-channel New World here in the United States, Turner is thinking of programming. He built Turner Broadcasting by providing programming for the U.S. cable industry in its developing years--whether the programs were news from a worldwide staff of correspondents or films or Atlanta Braves ballgames. Turner gave cable operators something for their customers to watch.

Like all true entrepreneurs, Turner thinks of the mass market, the largest possible number of customers.

He complains that most current movies are “garbage” and is known to believe that the way to the global mass market is through family movies--the G and PG classifications, not the steamy R ratings. A new venture with a movie studio, although apparently not Warner Bros., could offer Turner fresh opportunity here.

With so much activity in the business, it’s hard to see Turner retiring. “I don’t think Turner wants to be a guy with $3 billion without a job,” one mystified Wall Street analyst said. “What can he have control of, once it’s all over?”

With Turner, you never know. He told an interviewer for Forbes magazine last year that the kind of success he has built in communications in the last 30 years might be possible in the coming decades in environmental ventures. “If you can clean the air or water or get rid of the garbage, you’ll make billions,” he said.

If his current company is indeed split up, Turner will have billions to pursue whatever visions he wants.

One Prize: TBS Time Warner Inc. and Tele-Communications Inc., which together own more than 41% of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., reportedly are in talks about splitting up Ted Turner’s news and entertainment empire. *Who Owns TBS Ted Turner holds the biggest equity stake in the company, but other major investors together own more and have approval of strategic decisions. Ted Turner: 28.2% Tele-Communications Inc.: 22.5% Time Warner: 18.8% Others: 30.6% Note: Fully diluted shares *Revenue Up, Profit Down Until last year, Turner enjoyed steady increases in both revenue and profit. But 1992 earnings dropped nearly 10% from 1991. Dollar amounts in millions. Revenue (millions of dollars) Profit (millions of dollars) *The Turner Empire: Entertainment * TBS SuperStation * TNT * Hanna-Barbera Productions News * Cable News Network * Headline News * CNN International * Turner Private Networks Syndication, Licensing * MGM and Hanna-Barbera libraries * Turner Home Entertainment Inc. * Championship Wrestling Sports * Atlanta Braves * Atlanta Hawks * SportSouth Network (regional cable network) Sources: Bloomberg Business News; Turner Broadcasting System Inc. Researched by DALLAS JACKSON / Los Angeles Times