Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

KALODNER, Circuit Judge.

Is a television network affiliation contract for a two-year term, automatically renewable in the absence of termination notice for successive two-year terms, a depreciable asset?

That is the question presented by this petition for review of the Decision of the Tax Court which answered it in the negative 1 premised on its determination that the contract had “an indeterminate useful life” as of the close of the tax years here involved.

The facts critical to our disposition may be summarized as follows:

On June 1, 1953, Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, Inc. (“taxpayer”)…