Comcast 2011 Annual Report Download - page 36

industry-wide decline in DVD sales both in the United States and internationally, which has had an adverse
effect on our filmed entertainment business’ results of operations. DVD sales have also been adversely
affected by an increasing shift by consumers toward subscription rental, discount rental kiosks and digital
forms of entertainment, such as video on demand services, which generate less revenue per transaction than
DVD sales. A continued decline in our DVD sales volumes could have an adverse impact on our filmed enter-
tainment business, as well as on our cable networks and broadcast television businesses.
We rely on network and information systems and other technologies, as well as key properties, and a
disruption, cyber attack, failure or destruction of such networks, systems, technologies or properties
may disrupt our business.
Network and information systems and other technologies, including those related to our network manage-
ment, customer service operations and programming delivery, are critical to our business activities. Network
and information systems-related events, such as computer hackings, cyber attacks, computer viruses,
worms or other destructive or disruptive software, process breakdowns, denial of service attacks, malicious
social engineering or other malicious activities, or any combination of the foregoing, or power outages, natu-
ral disasters, terrorist attacks or other similar events, could result in a degradation or disruption of our
services, excessive call volume to call centers or damage to our properties, equipment and data. These
events also could result in large expenditures to repair or replace the damaged properties, networks or
information systems or to protect them from similar events in the future. Further, any security breaches, such
as misappropriation, misuse, leakage, falsification or accidental release or loss of information maintained in
our information technology systems and networks, including customer, personnel and vendor data, could
damage our reputation and require us to expend significant capital and other resources to remedy any such
security breach. Moreover, the amount and scope of insurance we maintain against losses resulting from any
such events or security breaches may not be sufficient to cover our losses or otherwise adequately compen-
sate us for any disruptions to our businesses that may result, and the occurrence of any such events or
security breaches could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. The risk of
these systems-related events and security breaches occurring has intensified, in part because we maintain
certain information necessary to conduct our businesses in digital form stored on cloud servers. While we
develop and maintain systems seeking to prevent systems-related events and security breaches from occur-
ring, the development and maintenance of these systems is costly and requires ongoing monitoring and
updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome security measures become more sophisticated.
Despite these efforts, there can be no assurance that these events and security breaches will not occur in the
future. Moreover, we may provide certain confidential, proprietary and personal information to third parties in
connection with our businesses, and while we obtain assurances that these third parties will protect this
information, there is a risk that this information may be compromised.
We may be unable to obtain necessary hardware, software and operational support.
We depend on third-party vendors to supply us with a significant amount of the hardware, software and
operational support necessary to provide certain of our services. Some of these vendors represent our pri-
mary source of supply or grant us the right to incorporate their intellectual property into some of our hardware
and software products. While we actively monitor the operations and financial condition of key vendors in an
attempt to detect any potential difficulties, there can be no assurance that we would timely identify any
operating or financial difficulties associated with these vendors or that we could effectively mitigate our risks
with respect to any such difficulties. If any of these vendors experience operating or financial difficulties or if
demand exceeds their capacity or they otherwise cannot meet our specifications, our ability to provide some
services may be materially adversely affected, in which case our business, results of operations and financial
condition may be adversely affected.
Comcast 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K 34