ACQUISITIONS AND DISPOSITIONS OF ASSETS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Business Combination and Asset Acquisition [Abstract]

ACQUISITIONS AND DISPOSITIONS OF ASSETS

ACQUISITIONS AND DISPOSITIONS OF ASSETS:

Broadcast Incentive Auction. In 2012, Congress authorized the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct so-called "incentive auctions" to auction and re-purpose broadcast television spectrum for mobile broadband use. Pursuant to the auction, television broadcasters submitted bids to receive compensation for relinquishing all or a portion of their rights in the television spectrum of their full-service and Class A stations. Low power stations were not eligible to participate in the auction and are not protected and therefore may be displaced or forced to go off the air as a result of the post-auction repacking process.

In March 2016, the FCC began the repacking process associated with the auction, in which the FCC reassigned some stations to new post-auction channels. We do not expect reassignment to new channels to have a material impact on our coverage. As part of that process, we received notification from the FCC that 100 of our stations have been assigned to new channels. Legislation has provided the FCC with a $3 billion fund to reimburse reasonable costs incurred by stations that are reassigned to new channels in the repack. We expect that the reimbursements from the fund will cover the majority of our expenses related to the repack. We recorded gains related to reimbursements for spectrum repack costs incurred of $1 million and $14 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, which are included within gain on asset dispositions and other, net of impairment in our consolidated statements of operations. Capital expenditures related to the spectrum repack were $1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and $4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021.