Note 5 - Retirement Plans

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

5.     Retirement Plans

We sponsor and in some cases contribute to defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans covering substantially all of our full-time employees. Our defined benefit pension plans include the Gray Television, Inc. Retirement Plan (the “Gray Pension Plan”), as well as two frozen plans assumed when we acquired the related businesses in prior years. The Gray Television, Inc. Capital Accumulation Plan (“the Capital Accumulation Plan”) is a defined contribution plan intended to meet the requirements of section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Effective July 1, 2015, monthly plan benefits under the Gray Pension Plan were frozen and will no longer increase after June 30, 2015. Also, effective beginning on July 1, 2015, employer contributions to the Capital Accumulation Plan have been enhanced such that the Company includes matching cash contributions at a rate of 100% of the first 3% of each employee’s salary deferral, and 50% of the next 2% of each employee’s salary deferral. In addition, the Company, at its discretion, may make an additional profit sharing contribution, based on annual Company performance, to those employees who meet certain criteria.

The following table provides the components of net periodic benefit cost for our defined benefit pension plans for the three-month and six-month periods ended June 30, 2015 and 2014, respectively (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended						Six Months Ended
	June 30,						June 30,
	2015			2014			2015			2014
Service cost	$	1,405		$	1,300		$	3,116		$	2,644
Interest cost		3,194			1,034			4,448			2,103
Expected return on plan assets		(3,710	)		(1,057	)		(5,114	)		(2,151	)
Loss amortization		900			244			1,740			496
Net periodic cost	$	1,789		$	1,521		$	4,190		$	3,092

During the six-month period ended June 30, 2015, we contributed $1.4 million to our pension plans. During the remainder of the year ending December 31, 2015, we expect to contribute an additional $3.8 million to our pension plans. For the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2015 and 2014, our contributions to our Capital Accumulation Plan were immaterial. We estimate that our contributions to the Capital Accumulation Plan for the remainder of the year ended December 31, 2015 will be approximately $1.4 million.