Turner Program Services was the former syndication arm of Turner Broadcasting. It served the same purpose as

Turner Entertainment Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing t ...

's distribution unit, with the exception that TPS was more involved in distributing television series rather than films. Founded in 1982, the company was originally responsible for syndicating Turner-produced programs (such as the syndicated game show '' Starcade'') as well as developing programming for TBS such as '' Night Tracks''. TPS expanded its distribution into other networks' series in the 1990s, syndicating series such as ''

The Wonder Years ''The Wonder Years'' is an American coming-of-age comedy/drama television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Supe ...

'' (which is now owned by 20th Television since 2011). When Turner bought the rights to the

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer t ...

library of cartoons, TPS became their distributor to local stations. TPS was also responsible for handling distribution and sales for CNN Newsource. One of the more notable series TPS was responsible for developing was '' Captain Planet and the Planeteers'', which was a co-production with

DiC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production comp ...

and centered on a character created by Turner Broadcasting founder

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he ...

. DiC and Turner combined on the development of the series while TPS was responsible for the distribution of the series, which aired on both TBS and in syndication. (When the series' sequel, ''The New Adventures of Captain Planet'', debuted in 1993, Turner Entertainment through Hanna-Barbera developed and produced the series on its own, and neither TPS nor DiC was involved.) Also, earlier in 1986, TPS, with the help of veteran

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

translator Fred Ladd, produced a second English translation of the 1970s

'' Science Ninja Team Gatchaman'' called '' G-Force: Guardians of Space'', which would subsequently air on TBS (1986) and Cartoon Network (1995–1997). TPS also held partial distribution rights to ''G-Force'' (along with King Features Entertainment) until all rights to the series reverted to license holder Sandy Frank Entertainment in 2003. In 1987, Turner Program Services expanded to built on the pre-1986 MGM library with various movie packages, provided by Turner Entertainment Co., as well as colorization of various older movie titles. Upon

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

's purchase of Turner in 1996, TPS was absorbed into Telepictures Distribution, which is now part of Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution (Telepictures still exists as a production company). CNN Newsource began to handle its own distribution and ad sales from then on.

References

{{US-media-company-stub Mass media companies established in 1982 Mass media companies disestablished in 1997 Television syndication distributors 1982 establishments in the United States