We report the structural and optical properties of wurtzite-structure Zn(Mg,Cd)O ternary alloys. Wurtzite (0 0 0 1) Zn1-xCdxO and MgyZn1-yO films were grown on (11-20) sapphire substrates using remote-plasma-enhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The large bowing parameters of Zn1-xCdxO and MgyZn1-yO ternary alloys are 3.0 and 3.5, respectively, which reflects the large difference of each binary's electronegativity. We have analyzed the broadening of photoluminescence (PL) in Zn(Mg,Cd)O alloys on alloy content by taking into account the statistical alloy fluctuation and the localization of the exciton, and have clarified that the localization of the exciton strongly affects to PL full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) in Zn(Mg,Cd)O alloys. The alloy broadenings in steady-state PL of Zn(Mg,Cd)O alloys are in good agreement with the calculated tendency by the theoretical model based on the statistical alloy fluctuation, while PL FWHM of Zn1-xCdxO is three times larger than the calculated results. Moreover, as another way to confirm alloy broadening, we also have done time-resolved PL measurements and derived the localized depth of the exciton in ZnO-based system, indicating a good agreement with the tendency of PL FWHM broadening. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.