Other Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Feb. 29, 2012

Other Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]

OTHER COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12. OTHER COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

a. Commitments of our continuing operations

The Company has various commitments under the following types of material contracts for its continuing operations: (i) operating leases; (ii) radio syndicated programming; (iii) employment agreements and (iv) other contracts with annual commitments (mostly contractual services for audience measurement information) at February 29, 2012 as follows:

Year ending February 28 (29),	Operating Leases		Syndicated Programming		Employment Agreements		Other Contracts		Total
2013	$	6,487	$	368	$	13,012	$	8,194	$	28,061
2014		6,243		348		5,458		7,918		19,967
2015		6,488		148		1,333		2,811		10,780
2016		6,255		—		426		254		6,935
2017		6,062		—		439		196		6,697
Thereafter		26,766		—		—		—		26,766
Total	$	58,301	$	864	$	20,668	$	19,373	$	99,206

Emmis leases certain office space, tower space, equipment and automobiles under operating leases expiring at various dates through June 2027. Some of the lease agreements contain renewal options and annual rental escalation clauses (generally tied to the Consumer Price Index or increases in the lessor’s operating costs), as well as provisions for payment of utilities and maintenance costs. The Company recognizes escalated rents on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease agreement. Rental expense for continuing operations during the years ended February 2010, 2011 and 2012 was approximately $8.2 million, $8.6 million and $7.3 million, respectively. The Company recognized approximately $0.3 million of sublease income as a reduction of rent expense for the year ended February 29, 2012. No sublease income was recognized during the years ended February 28, 2010 or 2011.

There are no material commitments related to our discontinued operations.

b. Litigation

The Company is a party to various legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business. In the opinion of management of the Company, there are no legal proceedings pending against the Company likely to have a material adverse effect on the Company.

Certain individuals and groups have challenged applications for renewal of the FCC licenses of certain of the Company’s stations. The challenges to the license renewal applications are currently pending before the FCC. Emmis does not expect the challenges to result in the denial of any license renewals.

See Note 18 for a discussion of the litigation related to our preferred stock.

c. Other contingencies

Effective December 31, 2009, our radio music license agreements with the two largest performance rights organizations, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (“ASCAP”) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (“BMI”), expired. The Radio Music License Committee (“RMLC”), which negotiates music licensing fees for most of the radio industry with ASCAP and BMI and of which we are a participant, filed motions in the U.S. District Court in New York against BMI and ASCAP on behalf of the radio industry, seeking interim fees and a determination of fair and reasonable industry-wide license fees. The U.S. District Court in New York approved reduced interim fees for ASCAP and BMI.

In January 2012, ASCAP and the RMLC entered into a settlement agreement that was approved by the court and covers the period from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2016. This settlement also includes a credit for fees previously paid in 2010 and 2011, with such fees expected to be credited over a five-year period beginning January 1, 2012.

The final fees for BMI, still to be determined by the court, may be retroactive to January 1, 2010 and may be different from the interim fees.