Revenue Disclosures

Franchise revenue (which comprises the majority of the Company's revenues) and revenue from company-operated restaurants are recognized in accordance with ASC 606. Under ASC 606, revenue is recognized upon transfer of control of promised services or goods to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration the Company expects to receive for those services or goods. The Company's rental and financing revenues are recognized in accordance with applicable U.S. GAAP accounting standards promulgated prior to the issuance of ASC 606, which remain in effect.

Franchising Activities

The Company owns and franchises the Applebee’s and IHOP restaurant concepts. The franchise arrangement for both brands is documented in the form of a franchise agreement and, in most cases, a development agreement. The franchise arrangement between the Company as the franchisor and the franchisee as the customer requires the Company to perform various activities to support the brand that do not directly transfer goods and services to the franchisee, but instead represent a single performance obligation, which is the transfer of the franchise license. The intellectual property subject to the franchise license is symbolic intellectual property as it does not have significant standalone functionality, and substantially all of the utility is derived from its association with the Company’s past or ongoing activities. The nature of the Company’s promise in granting the franchise license is to provide the franchisee with access to the brand’s symbolic intellectual property over the term of the license. The services provided by the Company are highly interrelated with the franchise license and as such are considered to represent a single performance obligation.

The transaction price in a standard franchise arrangement for both brands primarily consists of (a) initial franchise/development fees; (b) continuing franchise fees (royalties); and (c) advertising fees. Since the Company considers the licensing of the franchising right to be a single performance obligation, no allocation of the transaction price is required. Additionally, all domestic IHOP franchise agreements require franchisees to purchase proprietary pancake and waffle dry mix from the Company.

The Company recognizes the primary components of the transaction price as follows:


•	Franchise and development fees are recognized as revenue ratably on a straight-line basis over the term of the franchise agreement commencing with the restaurant opening date. As these fees are typically received in cash at or near the beginning of the franchise term, the cash received is initially recorded as a contract liability until recognized as revenue over time;

•

The Company is entitled to royalties and advertising fees based on a percentage of the franchisee's gross sales as defined in the franchise agreement. Royalty and advertising revenue is recognized when the franchisee's reported sales occur. Depending on timing within a fiscal period, the recognition of revenue results in either what is considered a contract asset (unbilled receivable) or, once billed, accounts receivable, on the balance sheet.


•	Revenue from the sales of proprietary pancake and waffle dry mix is recognized in the period in which distributors ship the franchisee's order; recognition of revenue results in accounts receivable on the balance sheet.

In determining the amount and timing of revenue from contracts with customers, the Company exercises significant judgment with respect to collectibility of the amount; however, the timing of recognition does not require significant judgments as it is based on either the franchise term, the month of reported sales by the franchisee or the date of product shipment, none of which require estimation.

The Company does not incur a significant amount of contract acquisition costs in conducting its franchising activities and has not capitalized any such costs. The Company believes its franchising arrangements do not contain a significant financing component.

Prior to the adoption of ASC 606, the Company generally recognized the entire franchise and/or development fee as revenue at the restaurant opening date. The impact on the Company's previously reported financial statements of the change from that policy to the policy described above is presented in Note 3 - Accounting Standards Adopted and Newly Issued Accounting Standards Not Yet Adopted, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Prior to the adoption of ASC 606, the Company did not record advertising fees received under Applebee's franchise agreements as franchise revenue. In evaluating advertising activity under the guidance of ASC 606, the Company considers itself to be primarily responsible for fulfilling the promise to provide all of the services specified in the contract, including advertising activities, which are not considered to be distinct services in the context of providing the right to the symbolic intellectual property. Accordingly, under ASC 606, the Company records advertising fees received under Applebee's franchise agreements as franchise revenue. The Company had previously recorded advertising fees received under IHOP franchise agreements as franchise revenue. Under previously issued accounting guidance for franchisors, advertising revenue and expense were recognized in the same amount in each period. That guidance was superceded by ASC 606 such that advertising expense may now be different than the advertising revenue recognized as described above. The impact of these changes with respect to Applebee's advertising fees and advertising expenses on the Company's previously reported financial statements is presented in Note 3 - Accounting Standards Adopted and Newly Issued Accounting Standards Not Yet Adopted, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

The adoption of ASC 606 had no impact on the Company's recording of royalties and sales of proprietary pancake and waffle dry mix.

The following table disaggregates our franchise revenue by major type for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017:



	Three Months Ended				Six Months Ended
	June 30,				June 30,
	2018		2017		2018		2017
	(In thousands)
Franchise Revenue:
Royalties	$	77,494	$	77,124	$	151,910	$	155,998
Advertising fees	58,705		60,462		122,541		122,162
Pancake and waffle dry mix sales and other	12,780		12,209		26,558		23,445
Franchise and development fees	2,962		3,269		6,245		6,184
Total franchise revenue	$	151,941	$	153,064	$	307,254	$	307,789

Receivables from franchisees as of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017 were $71.7 million (net of allowance of $25.2 million)] and $66.2 million (net of allowance of $22.2 million), respectively, and were included in receivables, net in the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Changes in the Company's contract liability for deferred franchise and development fees during the six months ended June 30, 2018 are as follows:



	Deferred Franchise Revenue (short- and long-term)
	(In thousands)
Balance at December 31, 2017	$	81,433
Recognized as revenue during the six months ended June 30, 2018	(5,459		)
Fees received and deferred during the six months ended June 30, 2018	2,037
Balance at June 30, 2018	$	78,011

The balance of deferred revenue as of June 30, 2018 is expected to be recognized as follows:



	(In thousands)
Remainder of 2018	$	4,532
2019	10,547
2020	8,212
2021	7,636
2022	7,109
2023	6,543
Thereafter	33,432
Total	$	78,011

Company-operated Restaurants

The Company currently does not operate any restaurants but did operate restaurants in the comparative prior period. Sales by company-operated restaurants were recognized when food and beverage items were sold and were reported net of sales taxes collected from guests that were remitted to the appropriate taxing authorities. Recognition of revenue from company-operated restaurants was not impacted by the adoption of ASC 606 using the full retrospective method.