Well, yes and no. If they reasonably believe they can make future revenue from it, it would be dishonest (and illegal) to value it at $0. I have no doubt that they are playing funny accounting games, but they have to play within the rules set by the IRS.

Dishonest isn’t what’s important. What’s important is legal and generally accepted and allowed accounting principles.

Which I’m pretty sure they are following since they are required to follow these and are audited and checked up on by the SEC and others.

But yeah, everyone is doing as funny accounting as possible. That’s why we have laws and rules to specify what’s allowed. And it would be truly insane to talk about this on investor calls and whatnot if it was illegal.

It's only an asset if viewers can see it. If they never show it, and never put it on media, it's not an asset and has zero value for tax purposes. So poof Westworld disappears and is no longer an asset.

It’s an asset with zero value. They still own it and retain all rights, they just think it’s worth $0.

This is very important for tax purposes as if they ever sell it then they will pay taxes on the full amount sold. If they had a value on books then they would pay the difference of the sales price vs the value on books.