REVENUES

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Revenue [Abstract]

RevenueFromContractWithCustomerTextBlock

3.REVENUE

Nature of Goods and Services

The following is a description of principal activities from which the Company generates its revenue.

The Company generates revenue from the sale to advertisers of various services and products, including but not limited to: (i) commercial broadcast time; (ii) digital advertising; (iii) promotional and sponsorship event revenue; (iv) e-commerce revenue; and (v) trade and barter revenue. Services and products may be sold separately or in bundled packages. The typical length of a contract for service is less than 12 months.

Revenue is recognized when or as performance obligations under the terms of a contract with customers are satisfied. This typically occurs at the point in time that advertisements are broadcast, marketing services are provided, or as an event occurs. For commercial broadcast time and digital advertising, the Company recognizes revenue at the point in time when the advertisement is broadcast. For e-commerce revenue transactions, revenue is recognized as each third party sale is made and the advertisers’ good or service is transferred to the end customer. For trade and barter transactions, revenue is recognized at the point in time when the promotional advertising is aired.

For bundled packages, the Company accounts for each product or performance obligation separately if they are distinct. A product or service is distinct if it is separately identifiable from other items in the bundled package and if a customer can benefit from it on its own or with other resources that are readily available to the customer. The consideration is allocated between separate products and services in a bundle based on their stand-alone selling prices. The stand-alone selling prices are determined based on the prices at which the Company separately sells the commercial broadcast time, digital advertising, or digital product and marketing solutions.

Broadcast Revenues

Commercial broadcast time - The Company sells air-time to advertisers and broadcasts commercials at agreed upon dates and times. The Company’s performance obligations are broadcasting advertisements for advertisers at specifically identifiable days and dayparts. The amount of consideration the Company receives and revenue it recognizes is fixed based upon contractually agreed upon rates. The Company recognizes revenue at a point in time when the advertisements are broadcast and the performance obligations are satisfied. Revenues are recorded on a net basis, after the deduction of advertising agency fees by the advertising agencies.

Digital advertising - The Company sells digital marketing services to advertisers. The Company’s performance obligations are providing broadcasting advertisements and integrated marketing services for advertisers. The Company recognizes revenue at a point in time when the advertisements are broadcast, the marketing services are provided and the performance obligations are satisfied. Revenues are recorded on a gross basis as the Company acts as a principal in these transactions.

Event and Other Revenues

Promotional and Sponsorship Event revenue - The Company provides promotional advertising to advertisers in exchange for cash proceeds from ticket sales. Performance obligations are broadcasting advertisements for advertisers’ events at specifically identifiable days and dayparts. The Company also sells sponsorships to advertisers at various local events. Performance obligations include providing advertising space at the Company’s event. The Company recognizes revenue at a point in time, as the event occurs. Revenues are recorded on a net basis when the Company acts as an agent in these transactions.

E-Commerce revenue - The Company sells discount certificates to listeners on its websites. Listeners purchase goods and services from the advertiser at a discount to the fair value of the merchandise or service. Performance obligations include the promotion of advertisers’ discount offers on the Company’s website as well as revenue share payments to the advertiser. The Company records revenue on a net basis as it acts as an agent in these transactions.

Trade and Barter Revenues

Trade and barter – The Company provides advertising broadcast time in exchange for certain products, supplies, and services. The term of the exchanges generally permit the Company to preempt such broadcast time in favor of advertisers who purchase time on regular terms. Other than network barter programming, which is reflected on a net basis, the Company includes the value of such exchanges in both broadcasting net revenues and station operating expenses. Trade and barter value is based upon management’s estimate of the fair value of the products, supplies and services received.

Contract Balances

Refer to the table below for information about receivables, contract assets and contract liabilities from contracts with customers. Accounts receivable balances in the table below exclude other receivables that are not generated from contracts with customers. These amounts are $8.4 million and $11.8 million as of September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively.

	September 30,		December 31,
Description	2019		2018
	(amounts in thousands)
Receivables, included in "Accounts receivable
net of allowance for doubtful accounts"	$	354,702	$	330,983
Unearned revenue - current		16,113		22,692
Unearned revenue - noncurrent		2,130		1,138

Changes in Contract Balances

The timing of revenue recognition, billings and cash collections results in billed accounts receivable, unbilled receivables, and customer advances and deposits (unearned revenue) on the Company’s consolidated balance sheet. At times, however, the Company receives advance payments or deposits from its customers before revenue is recognized, resulting in contract liabilities. The contract liabilities primarily relate to the advance consideration received from customers on certain contracts. For these contracts, revenue is recognized in a manner that is consistent with the satisfaction of the underlying performance obligations. The contract liabilities are reported on the consolidated balance sheet on a contract-by-contract basis at the end of each respective reporting period within the other current liabilities and other long-term liabilities line items.

Significant changes in the contract liabilities balances during the period are as follows:

	Nine Months Ended
	September 30,
	2019
Description		Unearned Revenue
	(amounts in thousands)
Beginning balance on January 1, 2019	$	23,830
Revenue recognized during the period that was included in the beginning balance of contract liabilities		(20,104)
Additional amounts recognized during period		14,517
Ending balance	$	18,243

Disaggregation of Revenue

The following table presents the Company’s revenues disaggregated by revenue source:

	Nine Months Ended
	September 30,
	2019		2018
Revenue by Source	(amounts in thousands)
Broadcast revenues	$	991,768	$	963,118
Event and other revenues		71,754		77,252
Trade and barter revenues		12,289		10,822
Net revenues	$	1,075,811	$	1,051,192

	Three Months Ended
	September 30,
	2019		2018
Revenue by Source	(amounts in thousands)
Broadcast revenues	$	356,683	$	348,066
Event and other revenues		25,353		26,391
Trade and barter revenues		4,105		4,051
Net revenues	$	386,141	$	378,508

Performance Obligations

A performance obligation is a promise in a contract with a customer to transfer a good or service to the customer, and is the unit of account under this guidance. A contract’s transaction price is allocated to each distinct performance obligation and is recognized as revenue when the performance obligation is satisfied. Some of the Company’s contracts have one performance obligation which requires no allocation. For other contracts with multiple performance obligations, the Company allocates the contract’s transaction price to each performance obligation using its best estimate of the standalone selling price of each distinct good or service in the contract.

The Company’s performance obligations are either satisfied at a point in time or are satisfied over a period of time. As the Company’s inputs are expended evenly throughout the performance period, the Company recognizes revenue on a straight-line basis over the life of a contract. For performance obligations that are satisfied at a point in time, the Company recognizes revenue when an advertisement is aired and the customer has received the benefits of advertising.

Performance obligations for all products and services, with the exception of event revenues, are satisfied over the term of the contracts, which are typically less than 12 months.

Practical Expedients

As a practical expedient, when the period of time between when the Company transfers a promised good or service to a customer and when the customer pays for that good or service will be one year or less, the Company will not adjust the promised amount of consideration for the effects of a significant financing component.

The Company elected to apply the practical expedient which allows it to not disclose information about remaining performance obligations that have original expected durations of one year or less. The Company has contracts with customers which will result in the recognition of revenue beyond one year. From these contracts, the Company expects to recognize $2.1 million of revenue in excess of one year.

The Company also elected to apply the practical expedient which allows it to not disclose the amount of the transaction price allocated to the remaining performance obligations and an explanation of when the Company expects to recognize that amount as revenue for all reporting periods presented before January 1, 2018.

The Company elected to apply the practical expedient which allows the Company to recognize the incremental costs of obtaining contracts as an expense when incurred if the amortization period of the assets that the Company otherwise would have recognized is one year or less. These costs are included in station operating expenses on the consolidated statements of operations.

Significant Judgments

For performance obligations satisfied at a point in time, the Company does not estimate when a customer obtains control of the promised goods or services. Rather, the Company recognizes revenues at the point in time in which performance obligations are satisfied.

The Company records a provision against revenues for estimated sales adjustments when information indicates allowances are required.

For contracts with multiple performance obligations, the Company allocates the contract’s transaction price to each performance obligation using its best estimate of the standalone selling price of each distinct good or service in the contract.

For all revenue streams with the exception of barter revenues, the transaction price is contractually determined. Accordingly, no estimates are required and there is no variable consideration. For trade and barter revenues, the Company estimates the consideration by estimating the fair value of the goods and services received.

Net revenues from network barter programming have historically been recorded on a net basis. This treatment will continue to be the Company’s policy under the amended accounting guidance for revenue recognition.