Charles Dolan, the billionaire founder of HBO and Cablevision, whose family owns Madison Square Garden, has died at age 98, his family said Saturday.
Dolan passed away of natural causes according to a statement reported by Newsday, which has been a Dolan family property since 2008.
“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 statement reads.
Dolan’s career began in New York City in 1952 when he was just 26 years old.
Dolan — the father of New York Knicks Executive Chairman James Dolan — founded Sterling Manhattan Cable in 1962, which had exclusive agreements with New York pro-sports teams, including the Knicks and the Rangers.
Ten years later, in 1972, the Air Force veteran established Home Box Office — now commonly referred to as HBO — the first of-its-kind premium cable channel that would revolutionize the way people watched television.
The following year, in 1973, Dolan founded Cablevision, the cable company of which he was still the Chairman.
Dolan, whose family has a net worth of about $5.4 billion according to Forbes, also founded News12 in New York City, the first 24-hour cable channel for local news in the US.
He is survived by six children, 19 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
His wife, Helen Ann Dolan, died in 2023.
