Other matters	6 Months Ended
Other matters	Jun. 30, 2020
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]
Other matters	Other matters Litigation In the third quarter of 2018, certain national media outlets reported the existence of a confidential investigation by the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) into the local television advertising sales practices of station owners. We received a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) in connection with the DOJ’s investigation. On November 13 and December 13, 2018, DOJ and seven broadcasters settled a DOJ complaint alleging the exchange of competitively sensitive information in the broadcast television industry. In June 2019, we and four other broadcasters entered into a substantially identical agreement with DOJ, which was entered by the court on December 3, 2019. The settlement contains no finding of wrongdoing or liability and carries no penalty. It prohibits us and the other settling entities from sharing certain confidential business information, or using such information pertaining to other broadcasters, except under limited circumstances. The settlement also requires the settling parties to make certain enhancements to their antitrust compliance programs, to continue to cooperate with the DOJ’s investigation, and to permit DOJ to verify compliance. We do not expect the costs of compliance to be material. Since the national media reports, numerous putative class action lawsuits were filed against owners of television stations (the Advertising Cases) in different jurisdictions. Plaintiffs are a class consisting of all persons and entities in the United States who paid for all or a portion of advertisement time on local television provided by the defendants. The Advertising Cases assert antitrust and other claims and seek monetary damages, attorneys’ fees, costs and interest, as well as injunctions against the allegedly wrongful conduct. These cases have been consolidated into a single proceeding in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, captioned Clay, Massey & Associates, P.C. v. Gray Television, Inc. et. al., filed on July 30, 2018. At the court’s direction, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on April 3, 2019, that superseded the original complaints. Although we were named as a defendant in sixteen of the original complaints, the amended complaint did not name TEGNA as a defendant. After TEGNA and four other broadcasters entered into consent decrees with the DOJ in June 2019, the plaintiffs sought leave from the court to further amend the complaint to add TEGNA and the other settling broadcasters to the proceeding. The court granted the plaintiffs’ motion, and the plaintiffs filed the second amended complaint on September 9, 2019. On October 8, 2019, the defendants jointly filed a motion to dismiss the matter. The motion to dismiss remains pending before the court. We deny any violation of law, believe that the claims asserted in the Advertising Cases are without merit, and intend to defend ourselves vigorously against them. We, along with a number of our subsidiaries, also are defendants in other judicial and administrative proceedings involving matters incidental to our business. We do not believe that any material liability will be imposed as a result of any of the foregoing matters. FCC Broadcast Spectrum Program In April 2017, the FCC announced the completion of a voluntary incentive auction to reallocate certain spectrum currently occupied by television broadcast stations to mobile wireless broadband services, along with a related “repacking” of the television spectrum for remaining television stations. None of our stations relinquished any spectrum rights as a result of the auction. Stations in eighteen of our markets (which include four of our recently acquired stations from 2019 and one station we acquired in 2020 after it had completed its repacking) were repacked to new channels. As of July 3, 2020 - the end of the last official phase of the FCC’s post-auction transition schedule - all of our repacked stations have moved to their new channels, with one station broadcasting on an interim antenna pending the completion of its main post-auction facility; all of our other repacked stations have completed construction on their permanent post-auction facilities. The legislation authorizing the incentive auction and repacking established a $1.75 billion fund for reimbursement of costs incurred by stations required to change channels in the repacking. Subsequent legislation enacted on March 23, 2018, appropriated an additional $1 billion for the repacking fund, of which up to $750 million may be made available to repacked full power and Class A television stations and multichannel video programming distributors. Other funds are earmarked to assist affected low power television stations, television translator stations, and FM radio stations, as well for consumer education efforts. A majority of our capital expenditures in connection with the repack occurred in 2018 and 2019. To date, we have incurred approximately $40.6 million in capital expenditures for the spectrum repack project (of which $4.9 million was paid during the first six months of 2020). We have received FCC reimbursements of approximately $34.1 million through June 30, 2020. The reimbursements were recorded as a contra operating expense within our “Spectrum repacking reimbursements and other, net” line item on our Consolidated Statement of Income and reported as an investing inflow on the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows. Related Party Transactions We have an equity and debt investment in MadHive, Inc. (MadHive) which is a related party of TEGNA. In addition to our investment, we also have a commercial agreement with MadHive where they support our Premion business in acquiring and delivering over-the-top ad impressions. In the second quarter and first six months of 2020 and 2019, we incurred expenses of $13.7 million and $9.3 million, respectively, as a result of the commercial agreement with MadHive. As of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019 we had accounts payable and accrued liabilities associated with the commercial agreement of $4.2 million and $4.3 million, respectively. Sale of minority ownership interest in Premion On March 2, 2020, we sold a minority ownership interest in Premion, LLC (Premion) for $14.0 million to an affiliate of Gray Television (Gray). Gray is reselling Premion services across all of Gray’s 93 television markets. Our TEGNA stations and Gray will each have the right to independently sell Premion in markets where we both operate a local television station. The sale of spot television advertising is not part of this agreement, and Gray and our TEGNA stations will continue to sell spot advertising for our respective stations without any involvement from the other party. In connection with acquiring a minority interest, Gray has the right to sell its interest to Premion if there is a change in control of TEGNA or if the commercial reselling agreement terminates. Since redemption of the minority ownership interest is outside our control, Gray’s equity interest is presented outside of the Equity section on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet in the caption “Redeemable noncontrolling interest.” On the date of sale, we recorded a $14.0 million redeemable noncontrolling interest on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet in connection with Gray’s investment. When the redemption value or the carrying value (the acquisition date fair value adjusted for the noncontrolling interest’s share of net income (loss) and dividends) is less than the redemption value, we adjust the redeemable noncontrolling interest to equal the redemption value with changes recognized as an adjustment to retained earnings. Any such adjustment, when necessary, will be performed as of the applicable balance sheet date.