Commitments and Contingencies |
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| Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commitments and Contingencies |
Commitments and Contingencies
The following table summarizes our expected contractual cash commitments as of December 31, 2019:
Debt obligations. Debt obligations include principal payments on outstanding debt and finance lease obligations.
Cash interest payments. Cash interest payments include interest due on outstanding debt and capital lease payments through maturity.
Satellite and transmission. We have entered into agreements with several third parties to design, build, launch and insure two satellites, SXM-7 and SXM-8. We also have entered into agreements with third parties to operate and maintain satellite telemetry, tracking and control facilities and certain components of our terrestrial repeater networks.
Programming and content. We have entered into various programming and content agreements. Under the terms of these agreements, our obligations include fixed payments, advertising commitments and revenue sharing arrangements. In certain of these agreements, the future revenue sharing costs are dependent upon many factors and are difficult to estimate; therefore, they are not included in our minimum contractual cash commitments.
Sales and marketing. We have entered into various marketing, sponsorship and distribution agreements to promote our brands and are obligated to make payments to sponsors, retailers, automakers, radio manufacturers and other third parties under these agreements. Certain programming and content agreements also require us to purchase advertising on properties owned or controlled by the licensors.
Satellite incentive payments. Boeing Satellite Systems International, Inc., the manufacturer of certain of our in-orbit satellites, may be entitled to future in-orbit performance payments upon XM-3 and XM-4 meeting their fifteen-year design life, which we expect to occur. Boeing may also be entitled to up to $10 of additional incentive payments if our XM-4 satellite continues to operate above baseline specifications during the five years beyond the satellite’s fifteen-year design life.
Maxar Technologies (formerly Space Systems/Loral), the manufacturer of certain of our in-orbit satellites, may be entitled to future in-orbit performance payments upon XM-5, SIRIUS FM-5 and SIRIUS FM-6 meeting their fifteen-year design life, which we expect to occur.
Operating lease obligations. We have entered into both cancelable and non-cancelable operating leases for office space, terrestrial repeaters, data centers and equipment. These leases provide for minimum lease payments, additional operating expense charges, leasehold improvements and rent escalations that have initial terms ranging from one to fifteen years, and certain leases have options to renew. Total rent recognized in connection with leases for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 was $75, $43 and $43, respectively.
Advertising Sales Commitments. We have entered into agreements with third parties that contain minimum advertising sales guarantees and require that we make guaranteed payments. As of December 31, 2019, we had future minimum guarantee commitments of $35, of which $20 will be paid in 2020 and the remainder will be paid thereafter. On a quarterly basis, we record the greater of the cumulative actual expense incurred or the cumulative minimum guarantee based on our forecast for the minimum guarantee period. The minimum guarantee period is the period of time that the minimum guarantee relates to, as specified in the agreement, which may be annual or a longer period.
Royalties, Minimum Guarantees and Other. We have entered into music royalty arrangements that include fixed payments. Certain of our content agreements also contain minimum guarantees and require that we make upfront minimum guaranteed payments. During the year ended December 31, 2019, we prepaid $25 in content costs related to minimum guarantees. As of December 31, 2019, we had future fixed minimum guarantee commitments of $265, of which $249 will be paid in 2020 and the remainder will be paid thereafter. On a quarterly basis, we record the greater of the cumulative actual content costs incurred or the cumulative minimum guarantee based on forecasted usage for the minimum guarantee period. The minimum guarantee period is the period of time that the minimum guarantee relates to, as specified in each agreement, which may be annual or a longer period. The cumulative minimum guarantee, based on forecasted usage, considers factors such as listening hours, revenue, subscribers and other terms of each agreement that impact our expected attainment or recoupment of the minimum guarantees based on the relative attribution method.
Several of our content agreements also include provisions related to the royalty payments and structures of those agreements relative to other content licensing arrangements, which, if triggered, could cause our payments under those agreements to escalate. In addition, record labels, publishers and performing rights organizations (“PROs”) with whom we have entered into direct license agreements have the right to audit our content payments, and any such audit could result in disputes over whether we have paid the proper content costs.
We have also entered into various agreements with third parties for general operating purposes.
In addition to the minimum contractual cash commitments described above, we have entered into other variable cost arrangements. These future costs are dependent upon many factors and are difficult to anticipate; however, these costs may be substantial. We may enter into additional programming, distribution, marketing and other agreements that contain similar variable cost provisions. We also have a surety bond of approximately $45 primarily used as security against non-performance in the normal course of business. We do not have any other significant off-balance sheet financing arrangements that are reasonably likely to have a material effect on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources.
Legal Proceedings
In the ordinary course of business, we are a defendant or party to various claims and lawsuits, including those discussed below.
We record a liability when we believe that it is both probable that a liability will be incurred, and the amount of loss can be reasonably estimated. We evaluate developments in legal matters that could affect the amount of liability that has been previously accrued and make adjustments as appropriate. Significant judgment is required to determine both probability and the estimated amount of a loss or potential loss. We may be unable to reasonably estimate the reasonably possible loss or range of loss for a particular legal contingency for various reasons, including, among others, because: (i) the damages sought are indeterminate; (ii) the proceedings are in the relative early stages; (iii) there is uncertainty as to the outcome of pending proceedings (including motions and appeals); (iv) there is uncertainty as to the likelihood of settlement and the outcome of any negotiations with respect thereto; (v) there remain significant factual issues to be determined or resolved; (vi) the relevant law is unsettled; or (vii) the proceedings involve novel or untested legal theories. In such instances, there may be considerable uncertainty regarding the ultimate resolution of such matters, including the likelihood or magnitude of a possible eventual loss, if any.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act Suits. On March 13, 2017, Thomas Buchanan, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, filed a class action complaint against Sirius XM in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. The plaintiff alleges that Sirius XM violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (the “TCPA”) by, among other things, making telephone solicitations to persons on the National Do-Not-Call registry, a
database established to allow consumers to exclude themselves from telemarketing calls unless they consent to receive the calls in a signed, written agreement, and making calls to consumers in violation of our internal Do-Not-Call registry. The plaintiff is seeking various forms of relief, including statutory damages of five hundred dollars for each violation of the TCPA or, in the alternative, treble damages of up to fifteen hundred dollars for each knowing and willful violation of the TCPA and a permanent injunction prohibiting us from making, or having made, any calls to land lines that are listed on the National Do-Not-Call registry or our internal Do-Not-Call registry.
Following a mediation, in April 2019, Sirius XM entered into an agreement to settle this purported class action suit. The settlement resolves the claims of consumers for the period October 2013 through January 2019. As part of the settlement, Sirius XM paid $25 into a non-reversionary settlement fund from which cash to class members, notice, administrative costs, and attorney's fees and costs will be paid. The settlement also contemplates that Sirius XM will provide three months of service to its All Access subscription package for those members of the class that elect to receive it, in lieu of cash, at no cost to those class members and who are not active subscribers at the time of the distribution. The availability of this three-month service option will not diminish the $25 common fund. As part of the settlement, Sirius XM will also implement certain changes relating to its “Do-Not-Call” practices and telemarketing programs. On January 28, 2020, the Court issued an order and final judgment approving the settlement.
Pre-1972 Sound Recording Litigation. On October 2, 2014, Flo & Eddie Inc. filed a class action suit against Pandora in the federal district court for the Central District of California. The complaint alleges a violation of California Civil Code Section 980, unfair competition, misappropriation and conversion in connection with the public performance of sound recordings recorded prior to February 15, 1972 (which we refer to as, “pre-1972 recordings”). On December 19, 2014, Pandora filed a motion to strike the complaint pursuant to California’s Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (“Anti-SLAPP”) statute, which following denial of Pandora’s motion was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In March 2017, the Ninth Circuit requested certification to the California Supreme Court on the substantive legal questions. The California Supreme Court accepted certification. In May 2019, the California Supreme Court issued an order dismissing consideration of the certified questions on the basis that, following the enactment of the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, Pub. L. No. 115-264, 132 Stat. 3676 (2018) (the “MMA”), resolution of the questions posed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was no longer “necessary to . . . settle an important question of law.”
The MMA grants a potential federal preemption defense to the claims asserted in the aforementioned lawsuits. In July 2019, Pandora took steps to avail itself of this preemption defense, including making the required payments under the MMA for certain of its uses of pre-1972 recordings. Based on the federal preemption contained in the MMA (along with other considerations), Pandora asked the Ninth Circuit to order the dismissal of the Flo & Eddie, Inc. v. Pandora Media, Inc. case. On October 17, 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a memorandum disposition concluding that the question of whether the MMA preempts Flo and Eddie's claims challenging Pandora's performance of pre-1972 recordings “depends on various unanswered factual questions” and remanded the case to the District Court for further proceedings.
After Flo & Eddie filed its action in 2014 against Pandora, several other plaintiffs commenced separate actions, both on an individual and class action basis, alleging a variety of violations of common law and state copyright and other statutes arising from allegations that Pandora owed royalties for the public performance of pre-1972 recordings. Many of these separate actions have been dismissed or are in the process of being dismissed. None of the remaining pending actions is likely to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We believe we have substantial defenses to the claims asserted in these actions, and we intend to defend these actions vigorously.
Copyright Royalty Board Proceeding to Determine the Rate for Statutory Webcasting. Pursuant to Sections 112 and 114 of the Copyright Act, the CRB initiated a proceeding in January 2019 to set the rates and terms by which webcasters may perform sound recordings via digital transmission over the internet and make ephemeral reproductions of those recordings during the 2021-2025 rate period under the authority of statutory licenses provided under Sections 112 and 114 of the Copyright Act. We filed a petition to participate in the proceeding on behalf of our Sirius XM and Pandora businesses, as did other webcasters including Google Inc. and the National Association of Broadcasters. SoundExchange, a collective organization that collects and distributes digital performance royalties to artists and copyright holders, represents the various copyright owner participants in the proceeding, including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. Because the proceeding focuses on setting statutory rates for non-interactive online music streaming (commonly
identified as “webcasting”), the proceeding will set the rates that our Pandora business pays for music streaming on its free, ad-supported tier, and that our Sirius XM business pays for streaming on its subscription internet radio service. This proceeding will not set the rates that we pay for our other music offerings (satellite radio, business establishment services) or that we pay for interactive streaming on our Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium services.
In September 2019, the participants filed written direct statements, including proposed rates and terms for the 2021-2025 period. We and other webcaster participants proposed rates below the existing statutory rates, which for commercial webcasters are currently set at $0.0018 per performance for non-subscription transmissions (such as offered by our Pandora ad-supported business) and $0.0024 per performance for subscription transmissions (such as offered by our Sirius XM internet radio service). SoundExchange has proposed increasing the commercial webcasting rates to $0.0028 per performance for non-subscription transmissions and $0.0031 per performance for subscription transmissions.
In January 2020, the participants filed written rebuttal statements, responding to each other’s proposals. Discovery in the matter is ongoing, and a multi-week hearing has been set to begin before the CRB in March 2020. The CRB’s initial determination of the rates and terms for the 2021-2025 period is required to be delivered in December 2020.
Other Matters. In the ordinary course of business, we are a defendant in various other lawsuits and arbitration proceedings, including derivative actions; actions filed by subscribers, both on behalf of themselves and on a class action basis; former employees; parties to contracts or leases; and owners of patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property. None of these other matters, in our opinion, is likely to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
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