FASB News
Board Takes its Time on Performance Reporting Project
FASB is mulling big changes to the information companies provide in their income statements, but the board is taking its time before issuing guidance. FASB has agreed to keep researching ways to improve how businesses disaggregate, information in their income statements so that investors and analysts get a clearer picture of the company’s financial health. Specifically, the board wants to work on how to make companies provide more details about costs and how they are managed. From there, the board will have to decide if the new information would be detailed on the face of the financial statement or in the notes, FASB Chairman Russell Golden said at the end of a recent meeting. “First of all, it’s doable,” FASB member Christine Botosan said of the results of the research. “But it’s certainly not going to be costless. It’s going to be costly, frankly, for companies to comply with changes that we would recommend, but we can make it either more or less costly depending on what direction we go.”
Streaming Entertainment Providers Back Update to Accounting for Television Program Costs
Major players in the on-demand entertainment industry have backed FASB’s proposal to update the accounting for the costs to make a television show to reflect the changing industry. In comment letters, the companies supported the idea of aligning U.S. GAAP’s guidance on accounting for costs to create “episodic content” with the guidance for the costs to make films. The proposal, crafted by FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF), calls on creators of content produced for television and streaming services to use the same accounting for production costs that filmmakers follow. The reasoning is that on-demand cable and streaming Internet services have changed how viewers watch network television shows and how the original programing is produced for these services. “We believe the amendments proposed by this ASU would increase consistency in reporting across the industry and greatly streamline operational application,” Hulu wrote in response to the proposal.
PCAOB News
Director of Public Affairs Brennan Leaves Board
The PCAOB said that Colleen Brennan, director of public affairs, has left the board after almost 12 years of service. Torrie Miller Matous will lead the board’s new Office of External Affairs, which combines the offices of public affairs, government relations, and outreach and small business liaison. “Colleen ably led the Office of Public Affairs and is highly regarded for her many years of dedication to all PCAOB communications activities,” PCAOB Chairman William Duhnke said in a statement. “We thank her for her service and extend our best wishes in her future endeavors.” Brennan joined the board as deputy director of public affairs in February 2007 and became director in December 2010. The PCAOB said that under her leadership, the board’s news and web update subscriber list grew by more than 110%. She also improved the board’s digital communications. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve under several distinguished Board chairs and to work with so many talented people who share a commitment to the PCAOB’s core mission of protecting investors,” Brennan said in a statement.
