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Significant Accounting Policies (Policies) | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2020
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. The business and economic uncertainty resulting from the novel coronavirus and its related disease (collectively, “COVID-19”) has made such estimates and assumptions more difficult to calculate. Our actual results could differ materially from these estimated amounts. Our most significant estimates are our allowance for credit losses 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.
Investment, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Investments in Broadcasting, Production and Technology Companies. We have investments in several television, production and technology companies. None of these equity investments have readily determinable fair values. We have applied the measurement alternative as defined in the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Subtopic 825-10, Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities. These investments are reported together as a non-current asset on our balance sheets.
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 nine-month periods ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively (in millions):
|  | Three Months Ended |  |  | Nine Months Ended |
|  | September 30, |  |  | September 30, |
|  | 2020 |  |  | 2019 |  |  | 2020 |  |  | 2019 |
Weighted-average shares outstanding-basic |  |  | 95 |  |  |  | 100 |  |  |  | 97 |  |  |  | 100 |
Common stock equivalents for stock options and restricted stock |  |  | 1 |  |  |  | 1 |  |  |  | - |  |  |  | - |
Weighted-average shares outstanding-diluted |  |  | 96 |  |  |  | 101 |  |  |  | 97 |  |  |  | 100 |
Comprehensive Income, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss. Our accumulated other comprehensive loss balances as of September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, consisted of adjustments to our pension liability and the related income tax effect. As of September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019 the balances were as follows (in millions):
|  | September 30, |  |  | December 31, |
|  | 2020 |  |  | 2019 |
Accumulated balances of items included in accumulated other comprehensive loss: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Increase in pension liability |  | $ | (42 | ) |  | $ | (42 | )
Income tax benefit |  |  | (11 | ) |  |  | (11 | )
Accumulated other comprehensive loss |  | $ | (31 | ) |  | $ | (31 | )
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 |
|  | September 30, |  |  | December 31, |  |  | Useful Lives |
|  | 2020 |  |  | 2019 |  |  | (in years) |
Property and equipment: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Land |  | $ | 119 |  |  | $ | 119 |  |  |  |  |  |
Buildings and improvements |  |  | 305 |  |  |  | 291 |  |  | 7 | to | 40 |
Equipment |  |  | 814 |  |  |  | 776 |  |  | 3 | to | 20 |
|  |  | 1,238 |  |  |  | 1,186 |  |  |  |  |  |
Accumulated depreciation |  |  | (512 | ) |  |  | (461 | ) |  |  |  |  |
Total property and equipment, net |  | $ | 726 |  |  | $ | 725 |  |  |  |  |  |
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 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 we expect that it will conclude for nearly all of our stations by the end of 2020. 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 |  |  | Nine Months Ended |
|  | September 30 |  |  | September 30 |
|  | 2020 |  |  | 2019 |  |  | 2020 |  |  | 2019 |
Gain (loss) on disposal of fixed assets, net: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Proceeds from sale of assets |  | $ | 7 |  |  | $ | - |  |  | $ | 8 |  |  | $ | 3 |
Proceeds from FCC - Repack |  |  | 5 |  |  |  | 15 |  |  |  | 19 |  |  |  | 32 |
Net book value of assets disposed |  |  | (2 | ) |  |  | (1 | ) |  |  | (4 | ) |  |  | (5 | )
Other |  |  | - |  |  |  | - |  |  |  | - |  |  |  | (3 | )
Total |  | $ | 10 |  |  | $ | 14 |  |  | $ | 23 |  |  | $ | 27 |
Purchase of property and equipment: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Recurring purchases - operations |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | $ | 51 |  |  | $ | 38 |
Repack |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 19 |  |  |  | 34 |
Repack related |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | - |  |  |  | 1 |
Total |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | $ | 70 |  |  | $ | 73 |
Receivables, Trade and Other Accounts Receivable, Allowance for Doubtful Accounts, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Credit Losses. We record accounts receivable from sales and service transactions in our condensed consolidated balance sheets at amortized cost adjusted for any write-offs and net of allowance for credit losses. We are exposed to credit risk primarily through sales of broadcast and digital advertising with a variety of direct and agency-based advertising customers, retransmission consent agreements with multichannel video program distributors and program production sales and services. Our allowance for credit losses is an estimate of expected losses over the remaining contractual life of our receivables based on an ongoing analysis of collectability, historical collection experience, current economic and industry conditions and reasonable and supportable forecasts. The allowance is calculated using a historical loss rate applied to the current aging analysis. We may also apply additional allowance 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. We are closely monitoring the potential impact from COVID-19 on our business. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the collectability of our receivables will depend on numerous evolving factors. As such, we did not adjust our allowance for credit loss as of September 30, 2020. For further discussion of the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic see “Impact of COVID-19 and Related Government Restrictions on our Markets and Operations.” and Part II, Item 1A. Risk Factors of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The following table provides a rollforward of the allowance for credit losses. The allowance is deducted from the amortized cost basis of accounts receivable in our condensed consolidated balance sheets (in millions):
|  | Nine Months Ended |
|  | September 30, 2020 |
Beginning balance |  | $ | 11 |
Provision for credit losses |  |  | 2 |
Amounts written off |  |  | (2 | )
Amounts recovered from previous write-offs |  |  | - |
Ending balance |  | $ | 11 |
New Accounting Pronouncements, Policy [Policy Text Block] | Recent Accounting Pronouncements. In January 2020, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2020-01, Investments—Equity Securities (Topic 321), Investments—Equity Method and Joint Ventures (Topic 323), and Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815) (ASU 2020-01). ASU 2020-01 clarifies the interaction of the accounting for equity securities under Topic 321, the accounting for equity method investments in Topic 323, and the accounting for certain forward contracts and purchased options in Topic 815. ASU 2020-01 is effective for us beginning in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, and earlier adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of our pending adoption of ASU 2020-01 on our consolidated financial statements. In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes (ASU 2019-12), which is intended to simplify various areas related to the accounting for income taxes and improve consistent application of Topic 740. ASU 2019-12 is effective for us beginning in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, and earlier adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of our pending adoption of ASU 2019-12 on our consolidated financial statements. Adoption of Accounting Standard. On January 1, 2020, we adopted the amendments in ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on a modified-retrospective basis with comparative periods reported in accordance with previous guidance. These amendments require the measurement of credit losses using historical experience, current conditions and reasonable and supportable forecasts. Prior to this adoption, our allowance for doubtful accounts was equal to a portion of our receivable balances that were 120 days old or older. We generally provided allowances for certain receivable balances that were less than 120 days old when warranted by specific facts and circumstances. The adoption of the amendments in ASU 2016-13 did not have a material effect on our financial statements. In addition to the accounting standards described above, certain amounts in the condensed consolidated balance sheets and condensed consolidated statements of cash flows have also been reclassified to conform to the current presentation.

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