Comcast 2012 Annual Report Download - page 31

Table of Contents
Environmental Matters
Certain of our business operations are subject to environmental laws and regulations and involve air emissions, wastewater
discharges, and the use, disposal and cleanup of toxic and hazardous substances. Any failure to comply with environmental
requirements could result in monetary fines, civil or criminal sanctions, third-
party claims or other costs or liabilities. We have been
responsible for the cleanup of environmental contamination at some of NBCUniversal’s current and former facilities and at off-
site
waste disposal locations, although our share of the cost of such cleanups to date has not been material. In addition, the California
Attorney General and the Alameda County, California District Attorney are investigating whether certain of our waste disposal
policies, procedures and practices are in violation of the California Business and Professions Code and the California Health and
Safety Code. These entities have not specified the relief that may be sought. See Item 3, Legal Proceedings, in this Part I for more
information.
Environmental requirements have become more stringent over time, and pending or proposed new regulations could impact our
operations or costs. For example, climate change regulation, such as proposed greenhouse gas emissions limits or cap and trade
programs, could result in an increase in the cost of electricity, which is a significant component of our operational costs at some
locations. We are unable to accurately predict how these requirements might be changed in the future and how any such changes
might affect our businesses.
Disabilities Access
Our businesses are subject to a number of requirements related to ensuring that our services are accessible to individuals with
disabilities. Among other things, our voice services and email services must be accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities;
we must provide additional narrations of key visual elements (referred to as
“video description”)
on certain of our video services and
programming; and we must include closed captioning on certain video programming delivered to our customers. Congress has
directed the FCC to adopt further accessibility requirements for multichannel video providers, broadcasters and other entities over
the next year, and we cannot predict what impact those further requirements will have on our businesses.
Other FCC Regulations
The FCC actively regulates other aspects of our businesses, including the mandatory blackout of syndicated, network and sports
programming; customer service standards; loudness of commercial advertisements; political advertising; Emergency Alert System
requirements; equal employment opportunity; lottery programming; recordkeeping and public file access requirements;
telemarketing; technical standards relating to operation of the cable systems and television stations; and regulatory fees. We are
unable to predict how these regulations might be changed in the future and how any such changes might affect our businesses. In
addition, while we believe that we are in substantial compliance with FCC regulations, we are occasionally subject to enforcement
actions at the FCC, which can result in our having to pay fines to the agency or being subject to other sanctions.
Employees
As of December 31, 2012, we have approximately 129,000 full
-time and part-
time employees. Of these employees, approximately
83,000 were associated with our Cable Communications business and the remainder were associated with our NBCUniversal and
other businesses. We also use freelance and temporary employees in the normal course of our business.
Comcast 2012 Annual Report on Form 10-K
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