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VARIABLE INTEREST ENTITIES | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2025
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract] |
VARIABLE INTEREST ENTITIES | VARIABLE INTEREST ENTITIES: Certain of our stations provide services to other station owners within the same respective market through agreements, such as LMAs, where we provide programming, sales, operational, and administrative services, and JSAs and SSAs, where we provide non-programming, sales, operational, and administrative services. In certain cases, we have also entered into purchase agreements or options to purchase the license related assets of the licensee. We typically own the majority of the non-license assets of the stations, and in some cases where the licensee acquired the license assets concurrent with our acquisition of the non-license assets of the station, we have provided guarantees to the bank for the licensee’s acquisition financing. The terms of the agreements vary but generally have initial terms of over five years with several optional renewal terms. Based on the terms of the agreements and the significance of our investment in the stations, we are the primary beneficiary when, subject to the ultimate control of the licensees, we have the power to direct the activities which significantly impact the economic performance of the VIE through the services we provide and we absorb losses and returns that would be considered significant to the VIEs. The fees paid between us and the licensees pursuant to these arrangements are eliminated in consolidation. The carrying amounts and classification of the assets and liabilities of the VIEs mentioned above, which have been included in our consolidated balance sheets as of the dates presented, were as follows (in millions):
| As of September 30, 2025 |  | As of December 31, 2024
ASSETS |  |  |
Current assets: |  |  |
Accounts receivable, net | $ | 14 |  |  | $ | 18 |
Other current assets | 3 |  |  | 3 |
Total current assets | 17 |  |  | 21 |
Property and equipment, net | 6 |  |  | 8 |
Goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets | 13 |  |  | 15 |
Definite-lived intangible assets, net | 42 |  |  | 26 |
Total assets | $ | 78 |  |  | $ | 70 |
LIABILITIES |  |  |
Current liabilities: |  |  |
Other current liabilities | $ | 7 |  |  | $ | 13 |
Notes payable, finance leases and commercial bank financing, less current portion | 4 |  |  | 5 |
Other long-term liabilities | 3 |  |  | 3 |
Total liabilities | $ | 14 |  |  | $ | 21 |
The amounts above represent the combined assets and liabilities of the VIEs described above, for which we are the primary beneficiary. Total liabilities associated with certain outsourcing agreements and purchase options with certain VIEs, which are excluded from the above, were $152 million as of September 30, 2025 and $128 million as of December 31, 2024, as these amounts are eliminated in consolidation. The assets of each of these consolidated VIEs can only be used to settle the obligations of the VIE. As of September 30, 2025, all of the liabilities are non-recourse to us except for the debt of certain VIEs. See Debt of Variable Interest Entities and Guarantees of Third-Party Obligations under Note 3. Notes Payable, Finance Leases, and Commercial Bank Financing for further discussion. The risk and reward characteristics of the VIEs are similar. Other VIEs We have several investments in entities which are considered VIEs. However, we do not participate in the management of these entities, including the day-to-day operating decisions or other decisions which would allow us to control the entity, and therefore, we are not considered the primary beneficiary of these VIEs. The carrying amounts of our investments in these VIEs for which we are not the primary beneficiary were $73 million and $79 million as of September 30, 2025 and December 31, 2024, respectively, and are included in other assets in our consolidated balance sheets. See Note 2. Other Assets for more information related to our equity investments. Our maximum exposure is equal to the carrying value of our investments. The income and loss related to equity method investments and other investments are recorded in (loss) income from equity method investments and other income (expense), net, respectively, in our consolidated statements of operations. We recorded losses of $4 million and $6 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025, respectively, and losses of $55 million and $77 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, respectively, related to these investments.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for a variable interest entity (VIE), including but not limited to, judgments and assumptions in determining whether to consolidate and in identifying the primary beneficiary, gain (loss) recognized on the initial consolidation of the VIE, terms of arrangements, amounts and classification of the VIE's assets and liabilities, and the entity's maximum exposure to loss. + References Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Topic 810 -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Publisher FASB -URI https://asc.fasb.org/810/tableOfContent + Details
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