Commitments and Contingencies	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2017
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]
Commitments and Contingencies	NOTE 8: COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Chapter 11 Reorganization— On December 8, 2008 (the “Petition Date”), Tribune Company and 110 of its direct and indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively, the “Debtors” or “Predecessor”) filed voluntary petitions for relief (collectively, the “Chapter 11 Petitions”) under chapter 11 (“Chapter 11”) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Bankruptcy Court”). The Fourth Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization for Tribune Company and its Subsidiaries (as subsequently modified, the “Plan”) became effective and the Debtors emerged from Chapter 11 on December 31, 2012 (the “Effective Date”). The Bankruptcy Court entered final decrees collectively closing 106 of the Debtors’ Chapter 11 cases. The remaining Debtors’ Chapter 11 proceedings continue to be jointly administered under the caption In re Tribune Media Company, et al., Case No. 08-13141. See Note 3 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 for additional information regarding the Debtors’ Chapter 11 cases and for a description of the terms and conditions of the Plan. Confirmation Order Appeals—Notices of appeal of the Bankruptcy Court’s order confirming the Plan (the “Confirmation Order”) were filed by (i) Aurelius Capital Management, LP, on behalf of its managed entities that were holders of the Predecessor’s senior notes and Exchangeable Subordinated Debentures due 2029 (“PHONES”); (ii) Law Debenture Trust Company of New York (“Law Debenture”) and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas (“Deutsche Bank”), each successor trustees under the respective indentures for the Predecessor’s senior notes; (iii) by Wilmington Trust Company, as successor indenture trustee for the PHONES, and (iv) EGI-TRB, L.L.C., a Delaware limited liability company wholly-owned by Sam Investment Trust (a trust established for the benefit of Samuel Zell and his family) (the “Zell Entity”). The appellants sought, among other relief, to overturn the Confirmation Order and certain prior orders of the Bankruptcy Court embodied in the Plan, including the settlement of certain claims and causes of action related to the series of transactions (collectively, the “Leveraged ESOP Transactions”) consummated by the Predecessor, the Tribune Company employee stock ownership plan, the Zell Entity and Samuel Zell in 2007. As of June 30, 2017, each of the Confirmation Order appeals have been dismissed or otherwise resolved by a final order, with the exception of the appeals of Law Debenture and Deutsche Bank, which remain pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. See Note 3 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 for a further description of the Leveraged ESOP Transactions and the Confirmation Order appeals. If the remaining appellants succeed on their appeal, the Company’s financial condition may be adversely affected. Resolution of Outstanding Prepetition Claims—As of the Effective Date, approximately 7,400 proofs of claim had been filed against the Debtors. Amounts and payment terms for these claims, if applicable, were established in the Plan. The Plan requires the Company to reserve cash in amounts sufficient to make certain additional payments that may become due and owing pursuant to the Plan subsequent to the Effective Date. As of June 30, 2017, restricted cash held by the Company to satisfy the remaining claim obligations was $18 million and is estimated to be sufficient to satisfy such obligations. As of June 30, 2017, all but 403 proofs of claim against the Debtors had been withdrawn, expunged, settled or otherwise satisfied. The majority of the remaining proofs of claim were filed by certain of the Company’s former directors and officers, asserting indemnity and other related claims against the Company for claims brought against them in lawsuits arising from the Leveraged ESOP Transactions. Those lawsuits are pending in multidistrict litigation (“MDL”) before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “NY District Court”) in proceedings captioned In re Tribune Co. Fraudulent Conveyance Litigation. See “Certain Causes of Action Arising from the Leveraged ESOP Transactions” in Note 3 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 for a description of the MDL proceedings. Under the Plan, the indemnity claims of the Company’s former directors and officers must be set off against any recovery by the litigation trust formed pursuant to the Plan (the “Litigation Trust”) against any of those directors and officers, and the Litigation Trust is authorized to object to the allowance of any such indemnity-type claims. The ultimate amounts to be paid in resolutions of the remaining proofs of claim, including indemnity claims, will continue to be subject to uncertainty for a period of time after the Effective Date. If the aggregate allowed amount of the remaining claims exceeds the restricted cash held for satisfying such claims, the Company would be required to satisfy the allowed claims from its cash on hand from operations. Reorganization Items, Net—ASC Topic 852, “Reorganizations,” requires that the financial statements for periods subsequent to the filing of the Chapter 11 Petitions distinguish transactions and events that are directly associated with the reorganization from the operations of the business. Reorganization items, net included in the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations primarily include professional advisory fees and other costs related to the resolution of unresolved claims and totaled less than $1 million for each of the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and June 30, 2016. The Company expects to continue to incur certain expenses pertaining to the Chapter 11 proceedings throughout 2017 and potentially in future periods. FCC Regulation—Various aspects of the Company’s operations are subject to regulation by governmental authorities in the United States. The Company’s television and radio broadcasting operations are subject to FCC jurisdiction under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended. FCC rules, among other things, govern the term, renewal and transfer of radio and television broadcasting licenses, and limit the number of media interests in a local market that a single entity can own. Federal law also regulates the rates charged for political advertising and the quantity of advertising within children’s programs. As of August 9, 2017, the Company had FCC authorization to operate 39 television stations and one AM radio station. The Company is subject to the FCC’s “Local Television Multiple Ownership Rule,” the “Newspaper Broadcast Cross Ownership Rule” and the “National Television Multiple Ownership Rule,” among others, as further described in Note 12 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016. The FCC’s “National Television Multiple Ownership Rule” prohibits the Company from owning television stations that, in the aggregate, reach more than 39% of total U.S. television households, subject to a 50% discount of the number of television households attributable to UHF stations (the “UHF Discount”). On April 20, 2017, the FCC reinstated the UHF Discount (which had previously been eliminated in August 2016). The Company’s current national reach exceeds the 39% cap on an undiscounted basis, but complies with the cap on a discounted basis. In reinstating the UHF Discount, the FCC stated its intent to undertake a new rulemaking proceeding later this year during which it will consider the UHF Discount in conjunction with the national TV ownership cap. The Company cannot predict the outcome of any such proceeding, or the effect on its business. Federal legislation enacted in February 2012 authorized the FCC to conduct a voluntary “incentive auction” in order to reallocate certain spectrum currently occupied by television broadcast stations to mobile wireless broadband services, to “repack” television stations into a smaller portion of the existing television spectrum band and to require television stations that do not participate in the auction to modify their transmission facilities, subject to reimbursement for reasonable relocation costs up to an industry-wide total of $1.750 billion. On April 13, 2017, the FCC announced the conclusion of the incentive auction, the results of the reverse and forward auction and the repacking of broadcast television spectrum. The Company participated in the auction and anticipates receiving approximately $190 million in pretax proceeds resulting from the auction. As of August 9, 2017, the Company has received approximately $185 million in pretax proceeds (including $21 million of proceeds received by the Dreamcatcher stations), with approximately $5 million in pretax proceeds remaining to be paid to the Company. The Company expects to receive the remaining auction proceeds in the second half of 2017; however, the Company cannot predict the exact timing of the remaining payments. The Company expects to use approximately $102 million of after-tax proceeds to prepay a portion of the Term Loan Facility. After-tax proceeds of $12.6 million received by the Dreamcatcher stations will be used to prepay a substantial portion of the Dreamcatcher Credit Facility. Twenty-two of the Company’s television stations (including WTTK, which operates as a satellite station of WTTV) will be required to change frequencies or otherwise modify their operations as a result of the repacking. In doing so, the stations could incur substantial conversion costs, reduction or loss of over-the-air signal coverage or an inability to provide high definition programming and additional program streams. The Company expects that the reimbursements from the FCC’s special fund will cover the majority of the Company’s expenses related to the repack. However, the Company cannot currently predict the effect of the repacking, whether the special fund will be sufficient to reimburse all of the Company’s expenses related to the repack, the timing of reimbursements or any spectrum-related FCC regulatory action. As described in Note 1 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, the Company completed the Local TV Acquisition on December 27, 2013 pursuant to FCC staff approval granted on December 20, 2013 in the Local TV Transfer Order. On January 22, 2014, Free Press filed an Application for Review seeking review by the full Commission of the Local TV Transfer Order. The Company filed an Opposition to the Application for Review on February 21, 2014. Free Press filed a reply on March 6, 2014. The matter is pending. From time to time, the FCC revises existing regulations and policies in ways that could affect the Company’s broadcasting operations. In addition, Congress from time to time considers and adopts substantive amendments to the governing communications legislation. The Company cannot predict such actions or their resulting effect upon the Company’s business and financial position. Other Contingencies—The Company and its subsidiaries are defendants from time to time in actions for matters arising out of their business operations. In addition, the Company and its subsidiaries are involved from time to time as parties in various regulatory, environmental and other proceedings with governmental authorities and administrative agencies. See Note 9 for a discussion of potential income tax liabilities. Following the filing of the registration statement on Form S-4 by Sinclair registering the Sinclair Common Stock to be issued in connection with the Merger, four putative stockholder class action lawsuits were filed against the Company, members of the Company’s Board of Directors, Sinclair and Samson Merger Sub, Inc. in the United States District Courts for the Districts of Delaware and Illinois alleging that the proxy statement/prospectus omitted material information and was materially misleading, thereby violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The actions are captioned McEntire v. Tribune Media Company, et al., 1:17-cv-05179 (N.D. Ill.), Duffy v. Tribune Media Company, et al., 1:17-cv-00919 (D. Del.), Berg v. Tribune Media Company, et al., 1:17-cv-00938 (D. Del.), and Pill v. Tribune Media Company, et al., 1:17-cv-00961 (D. Del.). The actions generally seek, as relief, class certification, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, rescission or rescissory damages, and unspecified damages. The Company intends to vigorously defend against these lawsuits. The Company does not believe that any other matters or proceedings presently pending will have a material adverse effect, individually or in the aggregate, on its consolidated financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

NOTE 8: COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Chapter 11 Reorganization— On December 8, 2008 (the “Petition Date”), Tribune Company and 110 of its direct and indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively, the “Debtors” or “Predecessor”) filed voluntary petitions for relief (collectively, the “Chapter 11 Petitions”) under chapter 11 (“Chapter 11”) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Bankruptcy Court”). The Fourth Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization for Tribune Company and its Subsidiaries (as subsequently modified, the “Plan”) became effective and the Debtors emerged from Chapter 11 on December 31, 2012 (the “Effective Date”). The Bankruptcy Court entered final decrees collectively closing 106 of the Debtors’ Chapter 11 cases. The remaining Debtors’ Chapter 11 proceedings continue to be jointly administered under the caption In re Tribune Media Company, et al., Case No. 08-13141. See Note 3 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 for additional information regarding the Debtors’ Chapter 11 cases and for a description of the terms and conditions of the Plan.

Confirmation Order Appeals—Notices of appeal of the Bankruptcy Court’s order confirming the Plan (the “Confirmation Order”) were filed by (i) Aurelius Capital Management, LP, on behalf of its managed entities that were holders of the Predecessor’s senior notes and Exchangeable Subordinated Debentures due 2029 (“PHONES”); (ii) Law Debenture Trust Company of New York (“Law Debenture”) and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas (“Deutsche Bank”), each successor trustees under the respective indentures for the Predecessor’s senior notes; (iii) by Wilmington Trust Company, as successor indenture trustee for the PHONES, and (iv) EGI-TRB, L.L.C., a Delaware limited liability company wholly-owned by Sam Investment Trust (a trust established for the benefit of Samuel Zell and his family) (the “Zell Entity”). The appellants sought, among other relief, to overturn the Confirmation Order and certain prior orders of the Bankruptcy Court embodied in the Plan, including the settlement of certain claims and causes of action related to the series of transactions (collectively, the “Leveraged ESOP Transactions”) consummated by the Predecessor, the Tribune Company employee stock ownership plan, the Zell Entity and Samuel Zell in 2007. As of June 30, 2017, each of the Confirmation Order appeals have been dismissed or otherwise resolved by a final order, with the exception of the appeals of Law Debenture and Deutsche Bank, which remain pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. See Note 3 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 for a further description of the Leveraged ESOP Transactions and the Confirmation Order appeals. If the remaining appellants succeed on their appeal, the Company’s financial condition may be adversely affected.

Resolution of Outstanding Prepetition Claims—As of the Effective Date, approximately 7,400 proofs of claim had been filed against the Debtors. Amounts and payment terms for these claims, if applicable, were established in the Plan. The Plan requires the Company to reserve cash in amounts sufficient to make certain additional payments that may become due and owing pursuant to the Plan subsequent to the Effective Date. As of June 30, 2017, restricted cash held by the Company to satisfy the remaining claim obligations was $18 million and is estimated to be sufficient to satisfy such obligations.

As of June 30, 2017, all but 403 proofs of claim against the Debtors had been withdrawn, expunged, settled or otherwise satisfied. The majority of the remaining proofs of claim were filed by certain of the Company’s former directors and officers, asserting indemnity and other related claims against the Company for claims brought against them in lawsuits arising from the Leveraged ESOP Transactions. Those lawsuits are pending in multidistrict litigation (“MDL”) before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “NY District Court”) in proceedings captioned In re Tribune Co. Fraudulent Conveyance Litigation. See “Certain Causes of Action Arising from the Leveraged ESOP Transactions” in Note 3 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 for a description of the MDL proceedings. Under the Plan, the indemnity claims of the Company’s former directors and officers must be set off against any recovery by the litigation trust formed pursuant to the Plan (the “Litigation Trust”) against any of those directors and officers, and the Litigation Trust is authorized to object to the allowance of any such indemnity-type claims.

The ultimate amounts to be paid in resolutions of the remaining proofs of claim, including indemnity claims, will continue to be subject to uncertainty for a period of time after the Effective Date. If the aggregate allowed amount of the remaining claims exceeds the restricted cash held for satisfying such claims, the Company would be required to satisfy the allowed claims from its cash on hand from operations.

Reorganization Items, Net—ASC Topic 852, “Reorganizations,” requires that the financial statements for periods subsequent to the filing of the Chapter 11 Petitions distinguish transactions and events that are directly associated with the reorganization from the operations of the business. Reorganization items, net included in the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations primarily include professional advisory fees and other costs related to the resolution of unresolved claims and totaled less than $1 million for each of the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and June 30, 2016. The Company expects to continue to incur certain expenses pertaining to the Chapter 11 proceedings throughout 2017 and potentially in future periods.

FCC Regulation—Various aspects of the Company’s operations are subject to regulation by governmental authorities in the United States. The Company’s television and radio broadcasting operations are subject to FCC jurisdiction under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended. FCC rules, among other things, govern the term, renewal and transfer of radio and television broadcasting licenses, and limit the number of media interests in a local market that a single entity can own. Federal law also regulates the rates charged for political advertising and the quantity of advertising within children’s programs. As of August 9, 2017, the Company had FCC authorization to operate 39 television stations and one AM radio station.

The Company is subject to the FCC’s “Local Television Multiple Ownership Rule,” the “Newspaper Broadcast Cross Ownership Rule” and the “National Television Multiple Ownership Rule,” among others, as further described in Note 12 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016.

The FCC’s “National Television Multiple Ownership Rule” prohibits the Company from owning television stations that, in the aggregate, reach more than 39% of total U.S. television households, subject to a 50% discount of the number of television households attributable to UHF stations (the “UHF Discount”). On April 20, 2017, the FCC reinstated the UHF Discount (which had previously been eliminated in August 2016). The Company’s current national reach exceeds the 39% cap on an undiscounted basis, but complies with the cap on a discounted basis. In reinstating the UHF Discount, the FCC stated its intent to undertake a new rulemaking proceeding later this year during which it will consider the UHF Discount in conjunction with the national TV ownership cap. The Company cannot predict the outcome of any such proceeding, or the effect on its business.

Federal legislation enacted in February 2012 authorized the FCC to conduct a voluntary “incentive auction” in order to reallocate certain spectrum currently occupied by television broadcast stations to mobile wireless broadband services, to “repack” television stations into a smaller portion of the existing television spectrum band and to require television stations that do not participate in the auction to modify their transmission facilities, subject to reimbursement for reasonable relocation costs up to an industry-wide total of $1.750 billion. On April 13, 2017, the FCC announced the conclusion of the incentive auction, the results of the reverse and forward auction and the repacking of broadcast television spectrum. The Company participated in the auction and anticipates receiving approximately $190 million in pretax proceeds resulting from the auction. As of August 9, 2017, the Company has received approximately $185 million in pretax proceeds (including $21 million of proceeds received by the Dreamcatcher stations), with approximately $5 million in pretax proceeds remaining to be paid to the Company. The Company expects to receive the remaining auction proceeds in the second half of 2017; however, the Company cannot predict the exact timing of the remaining payments. The Company expects to use approximately $102 million of after-tax proceeds to prepay a portion of the Term Loan Facility. After-tax proceeds of $12.6 million received by the Dreamcatcher stations will be used to prepay a substantial portion of the Dreamcatcher Credit Facility. Twenty-two of the Company’s television stations (including WTTK, which operates as a satellite station of WTTV) will be required to change frequencies or otherwise modify their operations as a result of the repacking. In doing so, the stations could incur substantial conversion costs, reduction or loss of over-the-air signal coverage or an inability to provide high definition programming and additional program streams. The Company expects that the reimbursements from the FCC’s special fund will cover the majority of the Company’s expenses related to the repack. However, the Company cannot currently predict the effect of the repacking, whether the special fund will be sufficient to reimburse all of the Company’s expenses related to the repack, the timing of reimbursements or any spectrum-related FCC regulatory action.

As described in Note 1 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, the Company completed the Local TV Acquisition on December 27, 2013 pursuant to FCC staff approval granted on December 20, 2013 in the Local TV Transfer Order. On January 22, 2014, Free Press filed an Application for Review seeking review by the full Commission of the Local TV Transfer Order. The Company filed an Opposition to the Application for Review on February 21, 2014. Free Press filed a reply on March 6, 2014. The matter is pending.

From time to time, the FCC revises existing regulations and policies in ways that could affect the Company’s broadcasting operations. In addition, Congress from time to time considers and adopts substantive amendments to the governing communications legislation. The Company cannot predict such actions or their resulting effect upon the Company’s business and financial position.

Other Contingencies—The Company and its subsidiaries are defendants from time to time in actions for matters arising out of their business operations. In addition, the Company and its subsidiaries are involved from time to time as parties in various regulatory, environmental and other proceedings with governmental authorities and administrative agencies. See Note 9 for a discussion of potential income tax liabilities.

Following the filing of the registration statement on Form S-4 by Sinclair registering the Sinclair Common Stock to be issued in connection with the Merger, four putative stockholder class action lawsuits were filed against the Company, members of the Company’s Board of Directors, Sinclair and Samson Merger Sub, Inc. in the United States District Courts for the Districts of Delaware and Illinois alleging that the proxy statement/prospectus omitted material information and was materially misleading, thereby violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The actions are captioned McEntire v. Tribune Media Company, et al., 1:17-cv-05179 (N.D. Ill.), Duffy v. Tribune Media Company, et al., 1:17-cv-00919 (D. Del.), Berg v. Tribune Media Company, et al., 1:17-cv-00938 (D. Del.), and Pill v. Tribune Media Company, et al., 1:17-cv-00961 (D. Del.). The actions generally seek, as relief, class certification, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, rescission or rescissory damages, and unspecified damages. The Company intends to vigorously defend against these lawsuits.

The Company does not believe that any other matters or proceedings presently pending will have a material adverse effect, individually or in the aggregate, on its consolidated financial position, results of operations or liquidity.