Charles Dolan, a titan of the early cable trade who owned Cablevision, launched HBO and AMC Community and later branched out into iconic New York venues and sports activities groups, has died. He was 98.

Dolan’s loss of life was reported Saturday by Newsday, the Lengthy Island newspaper owned by the Dolan household.

Dolan’s affect in shaping the modern tv enterprise can’t be overstated. In 1961 he began wiring New York for cable with the launch of Manhattan Cable Tv. A decade later, in 1971, he had the imaginative and prescient to launch Residence Field Workplace as a service that may work with Hollywood studios to distribute films. He was a trailblazer in tapping satellite tv for pc expertise to speed up the distribution of cable programming throughout the nation.

From 1973 to 1985, Dolan was founder and common associate of the cable firm serving Lengthy Island that grew to become the Cablevision multi-system operator serving probably the most profitable markets within the nation. He was CEO of Cablevision from 1985 to 1995. Cablevision’s programming arm finally remodeled into AMC Networks, residence to the channel that was based as American Film Classics. The corporate is now residence to AMC Community, IFC, WeTV, SundanceTV, BBC America and cstreaming providers corresponding to AMC+ and Shudder.

Dolan has served as chairman emeritus of AMC Networks since September 2020.

In a 2018 interview with the College of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Faculty of Communication, Dolan defined that the idea for HBO grew out of a extra restricted service that Dolan’s firm assembled to distribute films to high-end New York motels. The channel launched in 1971 because the Inexperienced Channel –which additionally included tourist-friendly details about New York — and was relaunched in 1972 as Residence Field Workplace when Dolan and his companions acquired an funding from Time Inc.

“We discovered subsequently that the resort folks have been telling us that the image that we supplied to their company within the resort rooms was far superior to the image they have been getting from the tv stations of all of the common tv programming,” Dolan informed Annenberg. “That made us suppose, ‘Effectively, perhaps we will be of service not solely to our clients and the motels, but in addition to the residents of Manhattan. So we went again to the Metropolis and stated, ‘Might we’ve a franchise to offer an improved tv service to the residents?’ They stated, ‘Sure.’ And so they gave us a franchise to serve the residents of Manhattan as far north as 89th Avenue on one aspect of city and 72 Avenue on the opposite aspect of city. That was the start.”

By the Nineties, Dolan was the patriarch of the household that owned the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Madison Sq. Backyard and Radio Metropolis Music Corridor. Dolan’s son James has taken up the baton as chief of MSG and different companies. The Dolan household offered the Cablevision for $17.7 billion to Altice USA in 2016.

Born in Cleveland, Dolan served within the Air Power and attended John Carroll College earlier than shifting into media, based on an in depth biography from the Syndeo Institute, a part of Denver’s Cable Heart.

Extra to come back