The U.S. recession stemming from the spread of the coronavirus has led to reduced spending on radio and television advertising in 2020. We believe declines in advertising revenue will materially weaken broadcaster Terrier Media Buyer Inc.'s (Cox Media Group) credit measures and reduce its cash balance in 2020. As a result, we are affirming our 'B' issuer credit rating on Cox Media Group and revising our outlook to negative from stable. The negative outlook reflects the possibility that steeper-than-expected declines or a weak recovery in core advertising could cause leverage to remain above 6.5x and free operating cash flow (FOCF) to debt to fall below 5% through the next political cycle in 2022. While leverage will spike, we expect the
