The Cablevision founder helped usher in a new era for television. He also acquired sports and entertainment properties including MSG and the New York Knicks.

Dec. 29 (UPI) -- HBO creator and billionaire Charles Dolan has died at the age of 98. A long-time media entrepreneur, Dolan was selling special programming to hotels through his Teleguide service as cable television was beginning to emerge as an entertainment option in rural areas in the 1960s.

Charles F. Dolan, the pioneer and businessman who founded HBO in the early 1970s, merged a group of Long Island cable TV systems into Cablevision, and later created the channel AMC, has died. He was 98.