Cable legend and Liberty Media chairman John Malone has been named the recipient of the Television Academy’s Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, part of the Engineering Emmys slated for Oct. 26.

The award is named after Jenkins, a pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of television, and “honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.” Malone is receiving the ward for his lifetime commitment and significant contributions to the advancement of cable television.

Past recipients of the award include founder and former Cable Labs CEO Dick Green and Sony Corp.'s Laurence Thorpe.

The 68th Annual Television Academy Engineering Awards will be held on Oct. 26 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles and will be hosted by Criminal Minds star Kirsten Vangsness.

NHK’s Science and Technology Research Laboratories will receive the Philo T. Farnsworth Corprate Achievement Award, which honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions over time have substantially impacted television technology and engineering.

Six other companies are set to receive Engineering Emmy’s, according to the Television Academy: software company SyncOnSet; camera tracking technology developer Ncam Technologies; Sony Corp.’s 2/3" 4K Imaging System;power technology company Saunders Electric; wireless technology company Zaxcom;and cloud-based software developer Group It For Me!

The 68th Engineering Emmy Awards are overseen by chair Barry Zegel, Senior Vice President, General Manager CBS Television City and Committee members Wendy Aylsworth, Chris Cookson, Ruth Adelman, Stuart Bass, Jim DeFilippis, Dave Stump, William Powloski, Leon Silverman and Craig Weiss.

Jim Simpson, veteran sportscaster and a key part of the ESPN on-air team at launch, died Jan. 13 at 88 following a short illness.

Besides ESPN, which he joined in 1979, Simpson worked for ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as TNT.

In 1998, Simpson received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Sports Emmy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2000, he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.

“Jim brought tremendous credibility to ESPN in our early days, doing whatever was needed to help build the network,” ESPN's founder and first president, Bill Rasmussen, said. “Jim was a television legend.”

Simpson’s career started with writing an outdoors column for a weekly Washington newspaper, which led to a radio show. Several radio positions followed, including White House correspondent at WWDC.

In January 1949, he departed radio to join brand-new Channel 9 in Washington, doing sports and working alongside anchor Walter Cronkite. After working for all three of the broadcast networks at the time, he shifted to cable in 1979.

“Jim Simpson saw the future of sports television was on cable, and his move to ESPN gave our company instant credibility and stature,” said John Wildhack, ESPN executive VP, programming and production. “His unsurpassed professionalism and smooth delivery graced our telecasts for many years. There has never been a finer or more unassuming man to reach such heights in his profession. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and many friends and colleagues.”

Simpson covered 14 Olympic Games, six Super Bowls, six World Series and 16 MLB All-Star games. He covered all of the Grand Slam golf and tennis events and all major college football bowl games, including 14 Orange Bowls. He also spent 15 seasons as an AFL and NFL broadcaster.