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Significant Accounting Policies (Policies) | 6 Months Ended
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Jun. 30, 2019
Accounting Policies [Abstract] |
Use of Estimates, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Use of Estimates The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Our actual results could differ materially from these estimated amounts. Our most significant estimates are of our allowance for doubtful accounts in receivables, valuation of goodwill and intangible assets, amortization of program rights and intangible assets, pension costs, income taxes, employee medical insurance claims, useful lives of property and equipment and contingencies.
Earnings Per Share, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Earnings Per Share We compute basic earnings per share by dividing net income available to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the relevant period. The weighted-average number of common shares outstanding does not include restricted shares. These shares, although classified as issued and outstanding, are considered contingently returnable until the restrictions lapse and, in accordance with U.S. GAAP, are not included in the basic earnings per share calculation until the shares vest. Diluted earnings per share is computed by including all potentially dilutive common shares, including restricted shares and shares underlying stock options, in the diluted weighted-average shares outstanding calculation, unless their inclusion would be antidilutive. The following table reconciles basic weighted-average shares outstanding to diluted weighted-average shares outstanding for the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively (in millions):
|  | Three Months Ended |  |  | Six Months Ended |
|  | June 30, |  |  | June 30, |
|  | 2019 |  |  | 2018 |  |  | 2019 |  |  | 2018 |
Weighted-average shares outstanding-basic |  |  | 100 |  |  |  | 88 |  |  |  | 100 |  |  |  | 88 |
Common stock equivalents for stock options and restricted shares |  |  | 1 |  |  |  | - |  |  |  | - |  |  |  | 1 |
Weighted-average shares outstanding-diluted |  |  | 101 |  |  |  | 88 |  |  |  | 100 |  |  |  | 89 |
Comprehensive Income, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss Our accumulated other comprehensive loss balances as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, consist of adjustments to our pension liability and the related income tax effect. Our comprehensive (loss) income for the six -months ended June 30, 2019 consisted of net (loss) income and an adjustment to the tax effect of our pension liability as a result of our adoption of Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2018-02, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220) – Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income. As of June 30, 2019, and December 31, 2018 the balances were as follows (in millions):
|  | June 30, |  |  | December 31, |
|  | 2019 |  |  | 2018 |
Accumulated balances of items included in accumulated other comprehensive loss: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Increase in pension liability |  | $ | (35 | ) |  | $ | (35 | )
Income tax benefit |  |  | (9 | ) |  |  | (14 | )
Accumulated other comprehensive loss |  | $ | (26 | ) |  | $ | (21 | )
Property, Plant and Equipment, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Property and Equipment Property and equipment are carried at cost. Depreciation is computed principally by the straight-line method. The following table lists the components of property and equipment by major category (dollars in millions):
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Estimated |
|  | June 30, |  |  | December 31, |  |  | Useful Lives |
|  | 2019 |  |  | 2018 |  |  | (in years) |
Property and equipment: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Land |  | $ | 115 |  |  | $ | 52 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Buildings and improvements |  |  | 272 |  |  |  | 166 |  |  |  | 7 | to | 40 |
Equipment |  |  | 734 |  |  |  | 548 |  |  |  | 3 | to | 20 |
|  |  | 1,121 |  |  |  | 766 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Accumulated depreciation |  |  | (435 | ) |  |  | (403 | ) |  |  |  |  |  |
Total property and equipment, net |  | $ | 686 |  |  | $ | 363 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Maintenance, repairs and minor replacements are charged to operations as incurred; major replacements and betterments are capitalized. The cost of any assets divested, sold or retired and the related accumulated depreciation are removed from the accounts at the time of disposition, and any resulting profit or loss is reflected in income or expense for the period. In April 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) began a process of reallocating the broadcast spectrum (the “Repack”). Specifically, the FCC is requiring certain television stations to change channels and/or modify their transmission facilities. The U.S. Congress passed legislation which provides the FCC with a $1.7 billion fund to reimburse all reasonable costs incurred by stations operating under a full power license and a portion of the costs incurred by stations operating under a low power license that are reassigned to new channels. Subsequent legislation in March 2018 appropriated an additional $1.0 billion for the Repack fund, of which up to $750.0 million may be made available to reimburse the Repack costs of full power, Class A television stations and multichannel video programming distributors. Other funds are earmarked to assist low power television stations and for other transition costs. The sufficiency of the FCC’s fund to reimburse for Repack costs is dependent upon a number of factors including the amounts to be reimbursed to other industry participants for Repack costs. Therefore, we cannot predict whether the fund will be sufficient to reimburse our Repack costs to the extent authorized under the legislation. Forty-seven of our current full power stations and thirty-seven of our current low power stations are affected by the Repack. The Repack process began in the summer of 2017 and will take approximately three years to complete. The majority of our costs associated with the Repack qualify for capitalization, rather than expense. Upon receipt of funds reimbursing us for our Repack costs, we record those proceeds as a component of our (gain) loss on disposal of assets, net. The following tables provide additional information related to gain on disposal of assets, net included in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and purchases of property and equipment included in our condensed consolidated statements of cash flows (in millions):
|  | Three Months Ended |  |  | Six Months Ended |
|  | June 30, |  |  | June 30, |
|  | 2019 |  |  | 2018 |  |  | 2019 |  |  | 2018 |
Gain (loss) on disposal of assets, net: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Proceeds from sale of assets |  | $ | 1 |  |  | $ | - |  |  | $ | 3 |  |  | $ | - |
Proceeds from FCC - Repack |  |  | 5 |  |  |  | 1 |  |  |  | 17 |  |  |  | 2 |
Net book value of assets disposed |  |  | (2 | ) |  |  | - |  |  |  | (4 | ) |  |  | - |
Other |  |  | (1 | ) |  |  | - |  |  |  | (3 | ) |  |  | - |
Total |  | $ | 3 |  |  | $ | 1 |  |  | $ | 13 |  |  | $ | 2 |
Purchase of property and equipment: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Recurring purchases - operations |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | $ | 14 |  |  | $ | 10 |
Repack |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 30 |  |  |  | 10 |
Total |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | $ | 44 |  |  | $ | 20 |
Receivables, Trade and Other Accounts Receivable, Allowance for Doubtful Accounts, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Allowance for Doubtful Accounts Our allowance for doubtful accounts is equal to a portion of our receivable balances that are 120 days old or older. We may provide allowances for certain receivable balances that are less than 120 days old when warranted by specific facts and circumstances. We generally write-off accounts receivable balances when the customer files for bankruptcy or when all commonly used methods of collection have been exhausted.
New Accounting Pronouncements, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Recent Accounting Pronouncements In January 2017, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU 2017-04, Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350) – Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment. ASU 2017-04 amends the guidance of U.S. GAAP with the intent of simplifying how an entity is required to test goodwill for impairment by eliminating Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test. Step 2 measures a goodwill impairment loss by comparing the implied fair value of a reporting unit’s goodwill with the carrying amount of that goodwill. After adoption of the standard, the annual, or interim, goodwill impairment test will be performed by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. An impairment charge would be recognized for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value; however, the loss recognized will not exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. The standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The standard allows for early adoption, but we have not yet made a determination as to whether to early-adopt this standard. We do not expect that the adoption of this standard will have a material impact on our financial statements. In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-14, Compensation Retirement Benefits Defined Benefit Plans General (Subtopic 715-20) - Disclosure Framework Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Defined Benefit Plans ASU 2018-14 adds, removes, and modifies disclosure requirements related to defined benefit pension and other postretirement plans. The update amends only annual disclosure requirements. Retrospective adoption of the update is required in fiscal 2022. The standard allows for early adoption, but we have not yet made a determination as to whether to early-adopt this standard. The adoption of this guidance requires a change in disclosures only and is not expected to have a material impact on our financial statements. Adoption of Accounting S tandards and Reclassifications In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02 – Leases (Topic 842). ASU 2016-02 superseded Topic 840, Leases, and thus superseded nearly all existing lease guidance by requiring the reclassification of lease assets and lease liabilities on the balance sheet and requiring disclosure of key information about leasing arrangements. In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-11, Leases (Topic 842) – Targeted Improvements, which provided the option of applying the requirements of the new lease standard in the period of adoption using the modified retrospective approach with no restatement of comparative periods. We adopted the standard effective January 1, 2019, using the modified retrospective approach provided in ASU 2018-11. The transition guidance allowed for the election of a number of practical expedients. We elected the package of practical expedients and the short term lease practical expedient. The package of practical expedients allowed us to carryforward our classification of existing leases. With the election of the short-term practical expedient, we are not required to recognize on our consolidated balance sheet, the present value of leases with an initial term of twelve months or less. We also implemented internal controls and key system functionality to enable the preparation of financial information on adoption. The standard had a material impact in our consolidated balance sheets, but did not have an impact in our consolidated income statements. Upon the adoption of this standard, we recorded a right of use (“ROU”) asset and a lease obligation liability of approximately $21 million. In addition, upon the completion of the Raycom Merger on January 2, 2019, we implemented these standards to the leases acquired in the Raycom Merger and recorded a ROU asset and a lease obligation liability of approximately $52 million for each. Please refer to Note 3 “Acquisitions and Divestitures” and Note 10 “Leases” for further information. In February 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-02, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220) – Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income. ASU 2018-02 allows a reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”). Consequently, the amendments eliminate the stranded tax effects resulting from the TCJA and will improve the usefulness of information reported to financial statement users. However, because the amendments only relate to the reclassification of the income tax effects of the TCJA, the underlying guidance that requires that the effect of a change in tax laws or rates be included in income from continuing operations is not affected. We have adopted this standard effective on January 1, 2019 and have recorded an adjustment of $5 million to increase our retained earnings and accumulated other comprehensive loss. In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-01, Business Combinations (Topic 805) – Clarifying the Definition of a Business. ASU 2017-01 adds guidance to assist entities in the determination of whether an acquisition (or disposal) represents assets or a business. The update provides a test to determine whether or not an acquisition is a business. If substantially all of the fair value of the assets acquired is concentrated in a single asset or a group of similar identifiable assets, the acquired assets do not represent a business. If this test is not met, the update provides further guidance to evaluate if the acquisition represents a business. The Company adopted the guidance on January 1, 2019. The adoption did not have an impact on our financial statements. Certain amounts in the condensed consolidated statement of cash flows have also been reclassified to conform to the current presentation.

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