XML 48 R8.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v2.4.0.6
Property, Plant And Equipment, Intangible Assets And Goodwill
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2012
Property, Plant And Equipment, Intangible Assets And Goodwill [Abstract]  
Property, Plant And Equipment, Intangible Assets And Goodwill [Text Block]

NOTE 2 – Property, plant and equipment, INTANGIBLE ASSETS AND GOODWILL

Acquisitions

During 2012, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company completed the acquisition of WOR-AM in New York City for $30.0 million and WFNX-FM in Boston for $14.5 million. These acquisitions resulted in an aggregate increase of $5.3 million to property plant and equipment, $15.2 million to intangible assets and $24.7 million to goodwill, in addition to $0.7 million of assumed liabilities.

 

During 2011, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company purchased a complementary traffic operation to its existing traffic business for $24.3 million. Immediately after closing, the acquired subsidiaries repaid pre-existing, intercompany debt owed in the amount of $95.0 million. The acquisition resulted in an increase of $17.2 million to property, plant and equipment, $35.0 million to intangible assets and $70.6 million to goodwill. During 2011, a subsidiary of the Company also acquired Brouwer & Partners, a street furniture business in Holland, for $12.5 million.

 

Property, Plant and Equipment

The Company's property, plant and equipment consisted of the following classes of assets at December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively.

(In thousands) December 31,  December 31,
  2012  2011
Land, buildings and improvements$ 685,431 $ 657,346
Structures  2,949,458   2,783,434
Towers, transmitters and studio equipment  427,679   400,832
Furniture and other equipment  431,757   365,137
Construction in progress  105,394   68,658
   4,599,719   4,275,407
Less: accumulated depreciation  1,562,865   1,212,080
Property, plant and equipment, net$ 3,036,854 $ 3,063,327

 

The Company impaired outdoor advertising structures in its Americas outdoor segment by $1.7 million and $4.0 million during 2012 and 2010, respectively.

 

Indefinite-lived Intangible Assets

The Company's indefinite-lived intangible assets consist of FCC broadcast licenses and billboard permits. FCC broadcast licenses are granted to radio stations for up to eight years under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the “Act”). The Act requires the FCC to renew a broadcast license if the FCC finds that the station has served the public interest, convenience and necessity, there have been no serious violations of either the Communications Act of 1934 or the FCC's rules and regulations by the licensee, and there have been no other serious violations which taken together constitute a pattern of abuse. The licenses may be renewed indefinitely at little or no cost. The Company does not believe that the technology of wireless broadcasting will be replaced in the foreseeable future.

 

The Company's billboard permits are granted for the right to operate an advertising structure at the specified location as long as the structure is in compliance with the laws and regulations of each jurisdiction. The Company's permits are located on owned land, leased land or land for which we have acquired permanent easements. In cases where the Company's permits are located on leased land, the leases typically have initial terms of between 10 and 20 years and renew indefinitely, with rental payments generally escalating at an inflation-based index. If the Company loses its lease, the Company will typically obtain permission to relocate the permit or bank it with the municipality for future use. Due to significant differences in both business practices and regulations, billboards in the International outdoor segment are subject to long-term, finite contracts unlike the Company's permits in the United States and Canada. Accordingly, there are no indefinite-lived intangible assets in the International outdoor segment.

 

The impairment tests for indefinite-lived intangible assets consist of a comparison between the fair value of the indefinite-lived intangible asset at the market level with its carrying amount. If the carrying amount of the indefinite-lived intangible asset exceeds its fair value, an impairment loss is recognized equal to that excess. After an impairment loss is recognized, the adjusted carrying amount of the indefinite-lived asset is its new accounting basis. The fair value of the indefinite-lived asset is determined using the direct valuation method as prescribed in ASC 805-20-S99. Under the direct valuation method, the fair value of the indefinite-lived assets is calculated at the market level as prescribed by ASC 350-30-35. The Company engaged Mesirow Financial, a third-party valuation firm, to assist it in the development of the assumptions and the Company's determination of the fair value of its indefinite-lived intangible assets.

 

The application of the direct valuation method attempts to isolate the income that is properly attributable to the indefinite-lived intangible asset alone (that is, apart from tangible and identified intangible assets and goodwill). It is based upon modeling a hypothetical “greenfield” build-up to a “normalized” enterprise that, by design, lacks inherent goodwill and whose only other assets have essentially been paid for (or added) as part of the build-up process. The Company forecasts revenue, expenses, and cash flows over a ten-year period for each of its markets in its application of the direct valuation method. The Company also calculates a “normalized” residual year which represents the perpetual cash flows of each market. The residual year cash flow was capitalized to arrive at the terminal value of the licenses in each market.

 

Under the direct valuation method, it is assumed that rather than acquiring indefinite-lived intangible assets as part of a going concern business, the buyer hypothetically develops indefinite-lived intangible assets and builds a new operation with similar attributes from scratch. Thus, the buyer incurs start-up costs during the build-up phase which are normally associated with going concern value. Initial capital costs are deducted from the discounted cash flow model which results in value that is directly attributable to the indefinite-lived intangible assets.

 

The key assumptions using the direct valuation method are market revenue growth rates, market share, profit margin, duration and profile of the build-up period, estimated start-up capital costs and losses incurred during the build-up period, the risk-adjusted discount rate and terminal values. This data is populated using industry normalized information representing an average FCC license or billboard permit within a market.

 

Annual Impairment Test to FCC Licenses and Billboard Permits

The Company performs its annual impairment test on October 1 of each year.

 

During 2012, the Company recognized a $35.9 million impairment charge related to billboard permits in certain markets due to a change in the Company's forecast of revenue growth within the markets. During 2011, the Company recognized a $6.5 million impairment charge related to billboard permits in one market due to significant declines in permit value resulting from flat revenues, a slight decline in margin and increased capital expenditures within the market. There was no impairment of FCC licenses during 2012 or 2011. During 2010, although the aggregate fair values of FCC licenses and billboard permits increased, certain markets experienced continuing declines. As a result, impairment charges were recorded in 2010 for FCC licenses and billboard permits of $0.5 million and $4.8 million, respectively.

Other Intangible Assets

Other intangible assets include definite-lived intangible assets and permanent easements. The Company's definite-lived intangible assets include primarily transit and street furniture contracts, talent and representation contracts, customer and advertiser relationships, and site-leases, all of which are amortized over the respective lives of the agreements, or over the period of time the assets are expected to contribute directly or indirectly to the Company's future cash flows. Permanent easements are indefinite-lived intangible assets which include certain rights to use real property not owned by the Company. There were no impairments of other intangible assets for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011. The Company impaired certain definite-lived intangible assets primarily related to a talent contract in its CCME segment by $3.9 million in 2010.

 

The following table presents the gross carrying amount and accumulated amortization for each major class of other intangible assets at December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively:

 

(In thousands) December 31, 2012 December 31, 2011
   Gross Carrying Amount Accumulated Amortization Gross Carrying Amount Accumulated Amortization
Transit, street furniture and other outdoor contractual rights$ 785,303$ (403,955)$ 773,238$ (329,563)
Customer / advertiser relationships  1,210,245  (526,197)  1,210,269  (409,794)
Talent contracts  344,255  (177,527)  347,489  (139,154)
Representation contracts  243,970  (171,069)  237,451  (137,058)
Permanent easements  173,374  -  171,918  -
Other  387,973  (125,580)  389,060  (96,096)
 Total$ 3,145,120$ (1,404,328)$ 3,129,425$ (1,111,665)

Total amortization expense related to definite-lived intangible assets was $300.0 million, $328.3 million and $332.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

 

As acquisitions and dispositions occur in the future, amortization expense may vary. The following table presents the Company's estimate of amortization expense for each of the five succeeding fiscal years for definite-lived intangible assets:

 

(In thousands)  
2013$ 283,942
2014  264,221
2015  239,211
2016  223,293
2017  196,681

Annual Impairment Test to Goodwill

The Company performs its annual impairment test on October 1 of each year. Each of the Company's U.S. radio markets and outdoor advertising markets are components. The U.S. radio markets are aggregated into a single reporting unit and the U.S. outdoor advertising markets are aggregated into a single reporting unit for purposes of the goodwill impairment test using the guidance in ASC 350-20-55. The Company also determined that within its Americas outdoor segment, Canada constitutes a separate reporting unit and each country in its International outdoor segment constitutes a separate reporting unit.

 

The goodwill impairment test is a two-step process. The first step, used to screen for potential impairment, compares the fair value of the reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill. If applicable, the second step, used to measure the amount of the impairment loss, compares the implied fair value of the reporting unit goodwill with the carrying amount of that goodwill.

 

Each of the Company's reporting units is valued using a discounted cash flow model which requires estimating future cash flows expected to be generated from the reporting unit, discounted to their present value using a risk-adjusted discount rate. Terminal values were also estimated and discounted to their present value. Assessing the recoverability of goodwill requires the Company to make estimates and assumptions about sales, operating margins, growth rates and discount rates based on its budgets, business plans, economic projections, anticipated future cash flows and marketplace data. There are inherent uncertainties related to these factors and management's judgment in applying these factors. The Company recognized no goodwill impairment for the year ended December 31, 2012.

 

In 2011, the Company utilized the option to assess qualitative factors under ASC 350-20-35 to determine whether it was more likely than not that the fair value of its reporting units was less than their carrying amounts, including goodwill. Based on a qualitative assessment, the Company concluded that no further testing of goodwill for impairment was required for its CCME reporting unit and for all of the reporting units within its Americas outdoor segment. Further testing was required for four of the countries within its International outdoor segment.

 

If further testing of goodwill for impairment is required after assessing qualitative factors, the Company follows the two-step impairment testing approach in accordance with ASC 350-20-35. The first step, used to screen for potential impairment, compares the fair value of the reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill. If applicable, the second step, used to measure the amount of the impairment loss, compares the implied fair value of the reporting unit goodwill with the carrying amount of that goodwill. For the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company recognized a non-cash impairment charge to goodwill of $1.1 million due to a decline in the fair value of one country within the Company's International outdoor segment.

 

For the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company performed a quantitative assessment as of October 1, 2010 and recognized a non-cash impairment charge to goodwill of $2.1 million due to a decline in fair value in one country within the Company's International outdoor segment.

 

The following table presents the changes in the carrying amount of goodwill in each of the Company's reportable segments. The provisions of ASC 350-20-50-1 require the disclosure of cumulative impairment. As a result of the merger, a new basis in goodwill was recorded in accordance with ASC 805-10. All impairments shown in the table below have been recorded subsequent to the merger and, therefore, do not include any pre-merger impairment.

 

(In thousands) CCME Americas Outdoor Advertising International Outdoor Advertising Other Consolidated
Balance as of December 31, 2010$ 3,140,198$ 571,932$ 290,310$ 116,886$ 4,119,326
 Impairment  -  -  (1,146)  -  (1,146)
 Acquisitions  82,844  -  2,995  212  86,051
 Dispositions  (10,542)  -  -  -  (10,542)
 Foreign currency  -  -  (6,898)  -  (6,898)
 Other  (73)  -  -  -  (73)
Balance as of December 31, 2011$ 3,212,427$ 571,932$ 285,261$ 117,098$ 4,186,718
 Acquisitions  24,842  -  -  51  24,893
 Dispositions  (489)  -  (2,729)  -  (3,218)
 Foreign currency  -  -  7,784  -  7,784
 Other  (92)  -  -  -  (92)
Balance as of December 31, 2012$ 3,236,688$ 571,932$ 290,316$ 117,149$ 4,216,085

The balance at December 31, 2010 is net of cumulative impairments of $3.5 billion, $2.6 billion, $314.8 million and $212.0 million in the Company's CCME, Americas outdoor, International outdoor and Other segments, respectively.