Los Angeles [US], December 29 : Charles Dolan, a titan of the early cable industry who owned Cablevision and launched HBO, passed away at 98.
Dolan died of natural causes on December 28, his family confirmed the demise of the mogul to Newsday, Deadline reported.
"It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved father and patriarch, Charles Dolan, the visionary founder of HBO and Cablevision," the family said in a statement to Newsday, once co-owned by Charles Dolan and his son Patrick who now owns it.
Charles Dolan is known for founding HBO in 1972 and a year later creating Cablevision, one of the nation's largest cable operators, which was sold to Altice in 2017 for USD 17.7 billion. In 1986, he was instrumental in Cablevision's launch of News 12 Long Island, the first 24-hour regional cable news channel in the U.S. It spawned the News 12 Networks group of local news channels in the New York area.
In 2020, Charles Dolan stepped down as executive chairman of the board of directors of AMC Networks, which had been spun out from Cablevision into a separate public company in 2011, as per Deadline.
Dolan is survived by six children, including James Dolan (and his wife, AMC Networks CEO Kristin Dolan) and Patrick Dolan, who runs Newsday. His brother, Larry Dolan, is the principal owner of baseball's Cleveland Guardians. His wife died in August 2023 at 96.
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