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FCC passes act to turn down volume on commercials

6533 Views 55 Replies 38 Participants Last post by  stahta01, 
Malcontent
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ent...s-act-to-turn-down-volume-on-commercials.html

Responding to years of complaints that the volume on commericals is louder than that of regular programming, the FCC on Tuesday passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM). The act requires commercials and entertainment and news programming to be kept at the same volume. The rules also require that the volume for promotional spots be equal to the shows around it.
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betts4
:up:
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marksman
This is awesome. Some people have claimed it is just because commercials are more condensed and have more points of maximum volume so they just seem louder, but I have never believed that. There are cases where commercials are significantly louder.

This only impacts me when I am trying to go to sleep with the tv on and am too lazy to hit skip with my eyes closed.
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Steveknj
marksman said:
This is awesome. Some people have claimed it is just because commercials are more condensed and have more points of maximum volume so they just seem louder, but I have never believed that. There are cases where commercials are significantly louder.

This only impacts me when I am trying to go to sleep with the tv on and am too lazy to hit skip with my eyes closed.
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I have to love the acronym, CALM.

There are definitely some commercials that are REALLY loud. I notice this during sporting events on those "provider only" commercials...you know the ones that are broadcast by your provider only, if you have Comcast you will see one commercial, if you have DirecTV you will see another. These commercials are literally BLASTED. They are so loud that I have to turn the volume down, and put it back up with the game comes back on.

The FCC finally does something consumer friendly :)
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Cearbhaill
OMG this makes my DAY!!!!

I have complained about this for years!
I was even told it was old people's ears mis-hearing.
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JimSpence
Let the complaints begin about the show content volume being lower. :)
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kdelande
For me, on DirecTV, this has been especially noticibile lately on ESPN during Monday Night Football. I have to reguarly manage the volume going in and out of commercials.

This is full of win!
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JLucPicard
JimSpence said:
Let the complaints begin about the show content volume being lower. :)
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Agreed. I've been using captions for quite a while now to be able to tell what low-talkers are saying, now I'll probably need them for everything. I'm all for the blasted commercials being lower (though I FF through most of it anyway), but I hope it doesn't screw up the actual program I'm watching - we'll see.

The whole 'law of unintended consequences' that seems to bite just about everything the gubbment does nowadays. :(
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E
I'm hoping that this will cause the volume of commercials to simply go down instead of the dynamic range of the shows being destroyed even more to match the commercials.
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Rocketslc
Oh no.
Without that blaring super holdem, raisem / lowerum, no showem bra infomercial to wake me after I fall asleep watching Craig Ferugson how will know when to wake up and turn the tv off.
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S
One time i ran a decibel monitor on my smartphone because i keep thinking something was wrong ... i keep increasing and decreasing volume while watching movies - had to decrease during commercials and increase when they ended. So the smartphone showed that dB doubled during commercials - insane.

This is awesome news.
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R
Did anyone read the article?

It doesn't take effect for a year.
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M
Great news! I would have gone further and written the rule to state that commercials are required to be 20% lower volume than the program being watched. Not that I watch many commercials (TiVo to the rescue).
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steve614
Is this just now going into effect? I remember reading about this proposal years ago and thought it had already gone into effect. :confused:
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Steveknj
ElJay said:
I'm hoping that this will cause the volume of commercials to simply go down instead of the dynamic range of the shows being destroyed even more to match the commercials.
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Well if the shows get louder to match the commercials...I can just turn the volume down :)
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J
Hooray!

FCC to ban loud TV commercials todayl

The Federal Communications Commission will pass regulations today to limit the volume levels of TV commercials and penalize broadcasters that bombard consumers with loud ads between televised shows and programs.

The regulatory guidelines that the FCC is expected to establish would be enforced by the the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation, or CALM, Act, which was passed by Congress last year and gave the FCC until Thursday (December 15, 2011) to develop rules on broadcast-commercial volume levels and penalties for violating those regulations.

Under CALM, televised ads' volume levels cannot exceed the loudest portion of the TV show in which they are placed. And that loudest allowable volume cannot be sustained for the entire commercial.

USA Today reports that some broadcasters and television providers have already started implementing the ideals of CALM, in preparation of the final rules that the FCC is expected to generate. But as provided by the law, broadcasters will still have a grace period —up to year from when the final FCC volume level rules are passed—from penalties for loud commercials.

Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, supported CALM when it was first introduced by Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA). Parul P. Desai, policy counsel for Consumers Union, said the following in regard to the FCC's pending action:

“We're glad that consumers are finally going to get some relief from extra-loud TV ads. People have been complaining about the volume of TV commercials for decades. This law is a relatively simple and straightforward measure that has really struck a chord with consumers.”
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A
The advertisers had to give a final shout (pun intended). Yesterday, I was watching the news, sort of snoozing. They went to a commercial and it was so loud, I jumped out of my chair. Now I have to fix a head-shaped hole in my ceiling. ;) :p
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efilippi
steve614 said:
Is this just now going into effect? I remember reading about this proposal years ago and thought it had already gone into effect. :confused:
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This is my recollection as well. I think there was even some claim that all feasible steps had already been taken, that the remaining differences, if any (as some claimed it to be more an impression of loudness than it was actual decibel level), were caused by variations outside the control of any one organization.

It somewhat makes sense to me that when the audio stream comes from different sources that control of volume to maintain some kind of standard would be a technologically difficult thing to do. Actually, I have no idea how it works, of course.
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J
steve614 said:
Is this just now going into effect? I remember reading about this proposal years ago and thought it had already gone into effect. :confused:
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The legislation mandating this FCC action was passed last December and signed into law by Obama on 12-15-10. There were delays from the original votes by both houses of Congress to appriove a reconciliaton act. The bill was orginally introduced in 2008.
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sieglinde
One of the few bipartisan things passed by Congress. Loud commericials? Hmm, I have a Tivo.
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