Property, Plant and Equipment (Notes)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment

Property, Plant and Equipment

Additions to property, plant and equipment are recorded at cost, including all material, labor and certain indirect costs associated with the construction of cable transmission and distribution facilities. While the Company’s capitalization is based on specific activities, once capitalized, costs are tracked on a composite basis by fixed asset category at the cable system level and not on a specific asset basis. For assets that are sold or retired, the estimated historical cost and related accumulated depreciation is removed. Costs associated with the placement of the customer drop to the dwelling and the placement of outlets within a dwelling along with the costs associated with the deployment of new customer premise equipment necessary to provide video, Internet or voice services are capitalized.  Costs capitalized include materials, direct labor and overhead costs.  The Company capitalizes direct labor and overhead using standards developed from actual costs and applicable operational data. The Company calculates standards annually (or more frequently if circumstances dictate) for items such as the labor rates, overhead rates, and the actual amount of time required to perform a capitalizable activity. Overhead costs are associated with the activities of the Company’s personnel and consist of compensation and other indirect costs associated with support functions. Indirect costs primarily include employee benefits and payroll taxes, and vehicle and occupancy costs. The costs of disconnecting service and removing customer premise equipment from a dwelling and the costs to reconnect a customer drop or to redeploy previously installed customer premise equipment are charged to operating expense as incurred.  Costs for repairs and maintenance are charged to operating expense as incurred, while plant and equipment replacement, including replacement of certain components, betterments, including replacement of cable drops and outlets, are capitalized.

Depreciation is recorded using the straight-line composite method over management’s estimate of the useful lives of the related assets as follows:

Cable distribution systems	6-22 years
Customer premise equipment and installations	3-8 years
Vehicles and equipment	6-21 years
Buildings and improvements	8-40 years
Furniture, fixtures and equipment	2-10 years

The Company periodically evaluates the estimated useful lives used to depreciate its assets and the estimated amount of assets that will be abandoned or have minimal use in the future. A significant change in assumptions about the extent or timing of future asset retirements, or in the Company’s use of new technology and upgrade programs, could materially affect future depreciation expense. Depreciation expense for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021 was $7.6 billion, $7.6 billion, and $7.7 billion, respectively.

Property, plant and equipment consists of the following as of December 31, 2023 and 2022:

	December 31,
	2023		2022
Cable distribution systems	$	44,561	$	39,759
Customer premise equipment and installations	17,043		17,043
Vehicles and equipment	2,172		2,068
Buildings and improvements	5,910		5,833
Furniture, fixtures and equipment	7,585		7,500
	77,271		72,203
Less: accumulated depreciation	(37,751)		(36,164)
	$	39,520	$	36,039

Certain of the Company’s franchise agreements and leases contain provisions requiring the Company to restore facilities or remove equipment in the event that the franchise or lease agreement is not renewed. The Company expects to continually renew its franchise agreements and therefore cannot reasonably estimate any liabilities associated with such agreements. A remote possibility exists that franchise agreements could be terminated unexpectedly, which could result in the Company incurring significant expense in complying with restoration or removal provisions. The Company does not have any significant liabilities related to asset retirements recorded in its consolidated financial statements.