Comcast 2007 Annual Report Download - page 15

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements
The SEC encourages companies to disclose forward-looking in-
formation so that investors can better understand a company’s
future prospects and make informed investment decisions. In this
Annual Report on Form 10-K, we state our beliefs of future events
and of our future financial performance. In some cases, you can
identify these so-called “forward-looking statements” by words
such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “believes,” “estimates,”
“potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, and
other comparable words. You should be aware that those state-
ments are only our predictions. In evaluating those statements,
you should specifically consider various factors, including the risks
and uncertainties listed in “Risk Factors” under Item 1A and in
other reports we file with the SEC. Actual events or our actual
results may differ materially from any of our forward-looking
statements.
Additionally, we operate in a highly competitive, consumer-driven and
rapidly changing environment. The environment is affected by govern-
ment regulation; economic, strategic, political and social conditions;
consumer response to new and existing products and services; tech-
nological developments; and, particularly in view of new technologies,
the ability to develop and protect intellectual property rights. Our
actual results could differ materially from management’s expectations
because of changes in such factors. Other factors and risks could
adversely affect our operations, business or financial results of our
businesses in the future and could also cause actual results to differ
materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
Item 1A: Risk Factors
All of the services offered by our cable systems face a wide
range of competition that could adversely affect our future
results of operations.
Our cable systems compete with a number of different sources
that provide news, information and entertainment programming
to consumers. We compete directly with other programming
distributors, including DBS companies, phone companies,
companies that build competing cable systems in the same
communities we serve, and companies that offer programming
and other communications services to our subscribers and
potential subscribers, including high-speed Internet and VoIP
service providers. This competition intensified during the second
half of 2007 and may adversely affect our business and results of
operations in the future.
We may face increased competition because of techno-
logical advances and new regulatory requirements, which
could adversely affect our future results of operations.
In addition to marketing DBS services in certain areas, ILECs have
built and are continuing to build wireline, fiber-optic-based net-
works and in some cases are using IP technology to provide video
services in substantial portions of their service areas. ILECs and
other companies also offer DSL and other Internet services. We
expect other advances in communications technology, as well as
changes in the marketplace, to occur in the future. New tech-
nologies and services may develop that compete with services that
our cable systems offer, and such services may not be regulated
in the same manner or to the same extent as our services. The
success of these ongoing and future developments could have an
adverse effect on our business and operations. Moreover, in re-
cent years, Congress and various states have enacted legislation
and the FCC has adopted regulatory policies that have had the
effect of providing a more favorable operating environment for
some of our existing and potential new competitors.
Programming expenses are increasing, which could adversely
affect our future results of operations.
We expect our programming expenses to continue to be our larg-
est single expense item in the foreseeable future. The MVPD
industry has continued to experience an increase in the cost of
programming, especially sports programming. If we are unable to
raise our subscribers’ rates or offset such programming cost
increases through the sale of additional services, the increasing
cost of programming could have an adverse impact on our results
of operations. In addition, as we add programming to our video
services, we face increased programming expenses.
We also expect to be subject to increasing demands by broad-
casters in exchange for their required consent for the retrans-
mission of broadcast programming to our subscribers. We cannot
predict the impact of these demands or the effect on our business
and operations should we fail to obtain the required consents.
We are subject to regulation by federal, state and local govern-
ments, which may impose additional costs and restrictions.
Federal, state and local governments extensively regulate the video
services industry and may increase the regulation of the Internet
services and digital phone services industries. We expect that
legislative enactments, court actions and regulatory proceedings
will continue to clarify and in some cases adversely effect the rights
and obligations of cable operators and other entities under the
Communications Act and other laws. Congress considers new
legislative requirements potentially affecting our businesses virtually
every year. The results of these legislative, judicial and admin-
istrative actions may materially affect our business operations.
Local authorities grant us franchises that permit us to operate our
cable systems. We have to renew or renegotiate these franchises
13 Comcast 2007 Annual Report on Form 10-K