Comcast 2012 Annual Report Download - page 85

Table of Contents
statement of income have been adjusted to separately present the components of these costs and expenses as programming and
production, other operating and administrative, and advertising, marketing and promotion.
Note 2: Accounting Policies
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP, which requires us to select accounting policies,
including in certain cases industry-
specific policies, and make estimates that affect the reported amount of assets, liabilities, revenue
and expenses, and the related disclosure of contingent assets and contingent liabilities. Actual results could differ from these
estimates. We believe the judgments and related estimates for the following items are critical in the preparation of our consolidated
financial statements:
In addition, the following accounting policies are specific to the industries in which we operate:
Information related to our accounting policies or methods related to investments, property and equipment, goodwill and other
intangibles, postretirement, pension and other employee benefits, share-
based compensation, and receivables monetization are
included in their respective footnotes that follow. Below is a discussion of accounting policies and methods used in our consolidated
financial statements that are not presented within other footnotes.
Revenue Recognition
Cable Communications Segment
Our Cable Communications segment generates revenue primarily from subscriptions to our video, high-
speed Internet and voice
services (“cable services”)
and from the sale of advertising. We recognize revenue from cable services as each service is provided.
Customers are typically billed in advance on a monthly basis. We manage credit risk by screening applicants through the use of
internal customer information, identification verification tools and credit bureau data. If a customer’
s account is delinquent, various
measures are used to collect outstanding amounts, including termination of the customer’
s cable services. Since installation revenue
obtained from the connection of customers to our cable systems is less than related direct selling costs, we recognize revenue as
connections are completed.
As part of our distribution agreements with cable networks, we generally receive an allocation of scheduled advertising time that we
may sell to local, regional and national advertisers. We recognize advertising revenue when the advertising is aired and based on the
broadcast calendar. In most cases, the available advertising time is sold by our sales force. In some cases, we work with
representation firms as an extension of our sales force to sell a portion of the advertising time allocated to us. We also coordinate the
advertising sales efforts of other multichannel video providers in some markets. Since we are acting as the principal in these
arrangements, we report the advertising that is sold as revenue and the fees paid to representation firms and multichannel video
providers as other operating and administrative expenses.
•
valuation and impairment testing of cable franchise rights (see Note 8)
•
film and television costs (see Note 5)
•
income taxes (see Note 15)
•
capitalization and amortization of film and television costs (see Note 5)
•
customer installation costs in our Cable Communications segment (see Note 7)
Comcast 2012 Annual Report on Form 10-K
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