Leases and Transponder Service Agreements |
3 Months Ended | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mar. 31, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leases and Transponder Service Agreements [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leases of lessee disclosure |
Leases and Transponder Service Arrangements
Future minimum payments under noncancelable operating leases and capital transponder leases with initial terms of one year or more and the lease related to the Company's west coast distribution center (build to suit lease) at March 31, 2016 consisted of the following:
The Company has entered into twelve separate capital lease agreements with transponder suppliers to transmit its signals in the U.S., Germany and France at an aggregate monthly cost of $1 million. Depreciation expense related to the transponders was $3 million for both the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015. Total future minimum capital lease payments of $79 million include $7 million of imputed interest. The transponder service agreements for our U.S. transponders expire between 2019 and 2023. The transponder service agreements for our international transponders expire between 2019 and 2024.
Expenses for operating leases, principally for data processing equipment, facilities, satellite uplink service agreements and the west coast distribution center land, amounted to $7 million and $6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively.
On July 2, 2015, QVC entered into a lease (the “Lease”) for a west coast distribution center. Pursuant to the Lease, the landlord is building an approximately one million square foot rental building in Ontario, California (the “Premises”), and thereafter will lease the Premises to QVC as its new west coast distribution center for an initial term of 15 years. Under the Lease, QVC is required to pay an initial base rent of approximately $6 million per year, increasing to approximately $8 million per year by the final year of the initial term, as well as all real estate taxes and other building operating costs. QVC also has an option to extend the term of the Lease for up to two consecutive terms of 10 years each.
QVC has the right to purchase the Premises and related land from the landlord by entering into an amended and restated agreement at any time during the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth months of the Lease's initial term with a $10 million initial payment and annual payments of $12 million over a term of 13 years.
The Company has concluded that it is the deemed owner (for accounting purposes only) of the Premises during the construction period under build to suit lease accounting. Building construction began in July of 2015. During the construction period, the Company is recording estimated project construction costs incurred by the landlord as a projects in progress asset and a corresponding long-term liability in “Property and equipment, net” and “Other long-term liabilities,” respectively, on its consolidated balance sheet. In addition, the Company will pay for normal tenant improvements and certain structural improvements and will record these amounts as part of the projects in progress asset. As of March 31, 2016 the projects in progress asset and long-term liability related to the west coast distribution center was approximately $74 million of which $58 million was incurred during the three months ended March 31, 2016.
Once the landlord completes the construction of the Premises (estimated to be mid 2016), the Company will evaluate the Lease in order to determine whether the Lease meets the criteria for “sale-leaseback” treatment under U.S. GAAP. If the Lease meets the “sale-leaseback” criteria, the Company will remove the asset and the related liability from its consolidated balance sheet and treat the Lease as either an operating or capital lease based on its assessment of the accounting guidance. However, the Company currently expects that upon completion of construction of the Premises that the Lease will not meet the "sale-leaseback" criteria.
If the Lease does not meet “sale-leaseback” criteria, the Company will treat the Lease as a financing obligation and lease payments will be attributed to: (1) a reduction of the principal financing obligation; (2) imputed interest expense; and (3) land lease expense representing an imputed cost to lease the underlying land of the Premises. In addition, the building asset will be depreciated over its estimated useful life. Although the Company will not begin making monthly lease payments pursuant to the Lease until February 2017, the portion of the lease obligations allocated to the land are being treated for accounting purposes as an operating lease that commenced in 2015. If the Company does not exercise its right to purchase the Premises and related land, the Company will derecognize both the net book values of the asset and the financing obligation at the conclusion of the lease term.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||