Comcast 2010 Annual Report Download - page 29

Table of Contents
Comcast 2010 Annual Report on Form 10-K
24
Item 1A: Risk Factors
Our businesses currently face a wide range of
competition, and our business and results of operations
could be adversely affected if we do not compete
effectively.
All of our businesses operate in intensely competitive
industries and compete with a growing number of companies
that provide a broad range of news and entertainment
programming and information and communication services to
consumers.
While competition for the cable services we offer consists
primarily of DBS operators and phone companies, we also
directly compete against other providers of traditional cable
services, including companies that build competing cable
systems in the same communities that we serve and SMATV
systems, as well as other companies that offer programming
and other communications services, including high-speed
Internet and phone services, to our customers and potential
customers. Recently, companies have emerged that offer
Internet video streaming and downloading of movies,
television shows and other video programming, some of
which charge a nominal or no fee for access. Phone
companies have expanded their service areas in recent
years, which now overlap a substantial portion of our service
areas. Some of our phone company competitors have their
own wireless phone facilities, which we do not have, and
have expanded or may expand their cable service offerings
to include wireless offerings, which may adversely affect our
growth, business and results of operations. In addition, in
2010, DBS operators and phone companies continued to add
features and adopt aggressive pricing and packaging for
services that are comparable to the cable services we offer.
In recent 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. In addition, while we continue to seek ways to
enhance and expand our existing cable products and
services, such as by employing addressable advertising and
offering our cable services to business customers, there can
be no assurance that we can execute on these
enhancements or expansions in a manner sufficient to grow
our businesses or compete successfully in the future.
Each of NBCUniversal’s businesses also faces substantial
and increasing competition from alternative providers of
similar types of content, as well as from other forms of
entertainment and recreational activities. We must compete
to obtain talent, programming and other resources required in
operating NBCUniversal’s businesses. For example, our
cable programming and broadcast networks and owned local
television stations compete for viewers with other cable
networks, broadcast networks and television stations, as well
as with other forms of content available in the home, such as
video games, DVDs and websites, and they also compete for
the sale of advertising time with other cable networks, broad-
cast networks and television stations, as well as with all other
advertising platforms, such as radio stations, print media and
websites. In addition, our cable programming networks
compete with other cable networks and programming
providers for carriage of their programming by MVPDs.
NBCUniversal’s filmed entertainment business competes with
other film studios and independent producers for sources of
financing for the production of its films, for the exhibition of its
films in theaters and for shelf space in retail stores for its
DVDs and also competes for consumers with other film
producers and distributors and all other forms of
entertainment inside and outside the home.
In addition, our ability to compete effectively is in part
dependent on our perceived image and reputation among our
various constituencies, including our customers, consumers,
advertisers, investors and governmental authorities. There
can be no assurance that we will be able to compete
effectively in the future against existing or new competitors or
that competition will not have a material adverse effect on our
business or results of operations.
Changes in technology and consumer behavior may
adversely affect our businesses and results of
operations.
New technologies have been, and will likely continue to be,
developed that further increase the number of competitors we
face for our cable services, our cable distribution and
programming advertising businesses and NBCUniversal’s
businesses. For example, new services and technologies that
may compete with our video services include online services
and devices that offer Internet video streaming and
downloading of movies, television shows and other video
programming that can be viewed on television sets, as well
as wireless and other emerging mobile technologies that
provide for the distribution and viewing of video
programming. Some of these services charge a nominal or
no fee for access to their content, which could adversely
affect our cable programming and broadcast businesses. The
success of these new services and technologies also could
negatively impact the demand for our video services,
including for our advanced, premium and On Demand
services. Moreover, changes in the products and services
that our competitors offer may require that we offer certain of
our existing services or enhancements at a lower or no cost
to our customers. Further, the increasing number of choices
available to our customers could adversely affect advertisers’
willingness to purchase advertising from us. In addition,
newer services in wireless Internet technology, such as 3G
and 4G wireless broadband services, may compete with our
high-speed Internet services, and our phone services are
facing increased competition from wireless and Internet-
based phone services as more people choose to replace
their traditional wireline phone service with these phone
services. The success of any of these ongoing and future
developments may have an adverse effect on our business
and results of operations.