Charles Dolan, a titan of the early cable trade who owned Cablevision, launched HBO and AMC Network and later branched out into iconic New York venues and sports activities groups, has died. He was 98.
Dolan’s dying was reported Saturday by Newsday, the Long Island newspaper owned by the Dolan household.
Dolan’s affect in shaping the up to date tv enterprise can’t be overstated. In 1961, he began the method of wiring New York for cable with the launch of Manhattan Cable Television. A decade later, in 1971, he had the imaginative and prescient to launch Home Box Office as a service that may work with Hollywood studios to distribute motion pictures. He was a trailblazer in tapping satellite tv for pc know-how to speed up the distribution of cable programming throughout the nation.
From 1973 to 1985, Dolan was founder and normal companion of the cable firm serving Long 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, house to the channel that was based as American Movie Classics. The firm is now house to AMC Network, IFC, WeTV, SundanceTV, BBC America and streaming providers reminiscent of AMC+ and Shudder. AMC Networks was spun off as a separate firm from Cablevision in 2011.
Dolan has served as chairman emeritus of AMC Networks since September 2020.
In a 2018 interview with the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication, Dolan defined that the idea for HBO grew out of a extra restricted service that Dolan’s firm assembled to distribute motion pictures to high-end New York inns. The channel launched in 1971 because the Green Channel –which additionally included tourist-friendly details about New York. It was relaunched in 1972 as Home Box Office when Dolan and his companions acquired an funding from Time Inc.
“We found subsequently that the hotel people were telling us that the picture that we provided to their guests in the hotel rooms was far superior to the picture they were getting from the television stations of all the regular television programming,” Dolan instructed Annenberg. “That made us think, ‘Well, maybe we can be of service not only to our customers and the hotels, but also to the residents of Manhattan. So we went back to the City and said, ‘May we have a franchise to provide an improved television service to the residents?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And they gave us a franchise to serve the residents of Manhattan as far north as 89th Street on one side of town and 72 Street on the other side of town. That was the beginning.”
By the late Nineties, Dolan was the patriarch of the household that owned the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. Dolan’s son James has taken up the baton as the highest chief of MSG and different companies. The Dolan household offered Cablevision for $17.7 billion to Altice USA in 2016. Dolan’s offspring stay lively in media and leisure, most not too long ago because the backers of the Sphere Entertaiment Co. which has made a splash in Las Vegas with its immersive-experience venue that’s increasing into different cities.
Born in Cleveland, Dolan served within the Air Force and attended John Carroll University earlier than shifting into media, in accordance with an in depth biography printed by the Syndeo Institute, a part of Denver’s Cable Center. In the Fifties, Dolan and his spouse of 73 years, Helen, began a enterprise out of their house producing brief movies of sporting occasions for syndication to native TV stations. That firm was acquired by a bigger outfit which led the Dolans to relocate to New York. Eventually, Charles Dolan and companions launched Sterling Movies USA, which distributed industrial movies to focused audiences, often teams gathered at conference inns.
Around this time, cable TV service was beginning to take root in rural areas the place residents had hassle receiving clear broadcast TV indicators. Big cities didn’t have a lot want for cable till Dolan realized that service could possibly be spotty in areas of Manhattan due to tall buildings and different obstructions.
“It was while wiring a hotel to pick up the Teleguide signal that Mr. Dolan recognized that the same method could be used to bring cable television to individual homes in New York, where tall buildings provided obstacles to satellite signals. In 1964, Mr. Dolan approached the city with his idea. The following year, he was awarded a franchise to wire the lower half of Manhattan — so began Sterling Manhattan Cable,” the Syndeo Institute biography states. “Knowing that his fledgling cable service needed more customers to lure more funding, in 1968, Mr. Dolan struck an unprecedented deal with Madison Square Garden to carry the New York Knicks and Rangers play-offs exclusively on cable for $24,000. This would be the first of many local programming offerings created by Charles Dolan.”
Nearly 30 years later, in 1997, Dolan’s enterprise empire would purchase full management of the Knicks and Rangers in addition to Madison Square Garden after shopping for out its then-partner ITT.
Throughout his profession, Dolan emphasised that his firms at all times targeted on offering distinctive content material and modern technique of distributing them to customers. Technology was a way to an finish for Dolan.
“This is what we believe in,” Dolan instructed the New York Times in 1997 when he acquired MSG and the groups. “We’re not in the cable business. We’re in the content and programming business. We’re fundamentally a regional company, and if you see yourself that way, and Madison Square Garden is available, you can’t help but want it. Our whole objective is to give the public better access to more events.”
A 12 months after HBO received off the bottom in 1972, Time Inc. exercised its choice to purchase out Dolan’s stake within the service. Dolan used the proceeds to purchase a small cable service on Long Island that he would construct into Cablevision. When requested in 2018 by Annenberg Center researchers if he regretted separating from HBO so quickly, he replied: “Every day.”
ln its later years, Cablevision was forward of the curve in its embrace of DVR know-how, HD image high quality, video on demand choices and different consumer-friendly improvements.
Helen Dolan died in 2023 at age 96. In addition to James Dolan, Charles Dolan’s survivors embody 5 different youngsters and quite a few grandchildren.