New Accounting Pronouncements

Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income

In February 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued guidance as a result of the Tax Act to permit the reclassification of certain tax effects in accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) to retained earnings. Current accounting guidance requires that adjustments to deferred tax assets and liabilities for changes in enacted tax rates be recorded through income from continuing operations even if the deferred taxes were originally established through comprehensive income. The new guidance allows companies to make a one-time election to reclassify the tax effects resulting from the Tax Act on items in AOCI to retained earnings. The new guidance is effective beginning with the first quarter of the Company’s 2020 fiscal year (with early adoption permitted). The guidance should be applied either retrospectively to each period (or periods) in which the effect of the change in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate in the Tax Act is recognized or as a cumulative adjustment in the first period of adoption. The Company is still assessing whether it will make the one-time election to reclassify the tax-effects to retained earnings.

Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities

In August 2017, the FASB issued guidance to improve certain aspects of the hedge accounting model including making more risk management strategies eligible for hedge accounting and simplifying the assessment of hedge effectiveness. We do not expect the adoption of the new standard will have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements as our historical hedging ineffectiveness has been immaterial. The new guidance is effective beginning with the Company’s 2020 fiscal year (with early adoption permitted) and requires prospective adoption with a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the fiscal year of adoption for existing hedging relationships.

Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost

In March 2017, the FASB issued guidance that requires presentation of the components of net periodic pension and postretirement benefit costs other than service costs in an income statement line item outside of a subtotal of income from operations. The service cost component will continue to be presented in the same line items as other employee compensation costs. In addition, under the guidance only service costs are eligible for capitalization, for example, as part of a self-constructed fixed asset or a film production. The new guidance is effective beginning with the first quarter of the Company’s 2019 fiscal year. The guidance is required to be adopted retrospectively with respect to income statement presentation and prospectively for the capitalization requirement. We do not expect the change in capitalization requirement to have a material impact on our financial statements. See Note 8 of this filing and Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial Statements in the 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K for the amount of each component of net periodic pension and postretirement benefit costs we have reported historically. These amounts of net periodic pension and postretirement benefit costs are not necessarily indicative of future amounts that may arise in years following implementation of the new accounting pronouncement.

Intra-Entity Transfers of Assets Other Than Inventory

In October 2016, the FASB issued guidance that requires recognition of the income tax consequences of an intra-entity transfer of an asset other than inventory when the transfer occurs instead of when the asset is ultimately sold to an outside party. The new guidance is effective beginning with the first quarter of the Company’s 2019 fiscal year. The guidance requires prospective adoption with a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the adoption period. Based upon our analysis, we estimate that approximately $0.1 billion will be recorded as an increase to retained earnings upon adoption, which we do not believe is material to our consolidated financial statements. Our assessment may change if we enter into new transactions between now and the date of adoption.

Leases

In February 2016, the FASB issued a new lease accounting standard, which requires the present value of committed operating lease payments to be recorded as right-of-use lease assets and lease liabilities on the balance sheet. The Company is currently assessing the impact of the new guidance on its financial statements. The standard can be adopted either as of the effective date without restating prior periods or retrospectively by restating prior periods. The guidance is effective at the beginning of the Company’s 2020 fiscal year (with early adoption permitted). As of September 30, 2017, the Company had an estimated $3.3 billion in undiscounted future minimum lease commitments.

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

In May 2014, the FASB issued guidance that replaces the existing accounting standards for revenue recognition with a single comprehensive five-step model, eliminating industry-specific accounting rules. The core principle is to recognize revenue upon the transfer of control of goods or services to customers at an amount that reflects the consideration expected to be received. Since its issuance, the FASB has amended several aspects of the new guidance, including provisions that address revenue recognition associated with the licensing of intellectual property (IP). The new guidance, including the amendments, is effective at the beginning of the Company’s 2019 fiscal year.

We have reviewed our significant revenue streams and identified required changes to our revenue recognition policies. Based on our existing customer contracts and relationships, we do not expect the implementation of the new guidance will have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements upon adoption. The Company’s evaluation of the impact could change if we enter into new revenue arrangements or interpretations of the new guidance further evolve.

While not expected to be material, the more significant changes to the Company’s revenue recognition policies are in the following areas:


•	For television and film content licensing agreements with multiple availability windows with the same licensee, the Company will defer more revenues to future windows than is currently deferred.

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For licenses of character images, brands and trademarks subject to minimum guaranteed license fees, we currently recognize the difference between the minimum guaranteed amount and actual royalties earned from licensee merchandise sales (“shortfalls”) at the end of the contract period. Under the new guidance, projected guarantee shortfalls will be recognized straight-line over the remaining license period once an expected shortfall is identified.

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For licenses that include multiple television and film titles subject to minimum guaranteed license fees that are recoupable against the licensee’s aggregate underlying sales from all titles, the Company will allocate the minimum guaranteed license fee to each title and recognize the allocated license fee as revenue when the title is made available to the customer. License fees in excess of the allocated by-title minimum guarantee are deferred until the aggregate contractual minimum guarantee has been exceeded and thereafter recognized as earned based on the licensee’s underlying sales. Under current guidance, an upfront allocation of the minimum guarantee is not required as license fees are recognized as earned based on the licensee’s underlying sales with any shortfalls recognized at the end of the contract period.


•	For renewals or extensions of license agreements for television and film content, we will recognize revenue when the licensed content becomes available under the renewal or extension, instead of when the agreement is renewed or extended.

We are developing processes to capture the information necessary for the expanded disclosures required under the new guidance, and continuing to identify updates needed to our internal controls to support our new revenue recognition policies and disclosure requirements.

The guidance may be adopted either by restating fiscal 2017 and 2018 to reflect the impact of the new guidance (full retrospective method) or by recording the impact of adoption as an adjustment to retained earnings at the beginning of fiscal 2019 (modified retrospective method). The Company currently expects to adopt the standard using the modified retrospective method.

The Company’s equity method investees are considered private companies for purposes of applying the new guidance and are not required to adopt the new standard until fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018. Our significant equity method investees continue to assess the potential impact of adopting the new standard on their financial statements. We currently do not expect any material impacts to the Company’s consolidated financial statements upon the investees’ adoption of the new guidance.