Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wants the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to act—against loud commercials. Her “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act’ has just cleared a subcommittee and now moves to the full House Energy and Commerce committee for a vote.
The bill is only a couple hundred words long. It directs the FCC to come up with regulations so that:
* Advertisements accompanying such video programming shall not be excessively noisy or strident
* Such advertisements shall not be presented at modulation levels substantially higher than the program material that such advertisements accompany
* The average maximum loudness of such advertisements shall not be substantially higher than the average maximum loudness of the program material that such advertisements accompany
Found by Brother Uncle Don.
‘Bout Friggin’ time! Typical situation that shouldn’t have to be legislated, but if not some asshole’s are bound to make pests of themselves.
What a dumbshit. Doesn’t this elected official have anything else to think about?
A bill that’s only a couple hundred words and available to read? What country is that happening in?
hopefully this bill will pass before I wear out the “1/2 mute” button on my toshiba TV. best invention ever, the 1/2 mute.
I personally would rather see this solved with technology.
It is an annoying problem, but why don’t TV sets have a “maximum” volume technology that merely makes this problem irrelevant.
The commercials would just find some other way to be highly annoying like flash stuff on the screen the way all the banner ads on the ‘net are annoying.
Irrelevant for me because:
I rarely watch television.
When I did, I used to watch of my Dish DVR, which allows me to instantly pass content in 30 second increments, without seeing or hearing it.
There was a time when I would start the DVR for the Superbowl, let it go for about three hours, and then start watching from the beginning. I would, however, skip by the boring millionaires chasing a ball around, and watch only the supposedly BEST commercials known to humankind. Now, however, they have stunk so bad for the past few years, that I don’t even bother.
I make my living in Television. I just don’t watch the shit.
If I owned McDonalds, would I eat that crap? No.
#5, the system needs to know when to activate AGC or compression, and when to leave them off. Generally, big dynamic range is a feature of home theater audio.
Seems that DTV broadcasts have a lot more audio level variability.
How in the hell is the maker of a commercial going to know what the “average maximum loudness” of any given TV show is going to be?
Does this numbskull thing they do these thing live in a studio?
Usually when there is a problem it is because the local station has the pot for the volume from the various replay source set to high/low.
I swear they turn the volume up when the commercials start. It seems commercials breaks are longer and you spend a full third or more of the show watching ads.
I switched from broadcast TV to DVD box sets. There are still commercials and FBI warnings you can’t skip through, but the time you spend watching the is shorter.
In the good old days, the FCC used to fine stations who failed to regulate audio levels. Good luck on passing this one. With today’s high tech receivers and uncompressed audio for HD it may be impossible to fix this at the origin.
There is hardware available for cable companies to deal with the issue. e.g.
i do not watch tv but the volume standards in podcasting need work.
Why is she asking the FCC to come up with regulations? She’s in Congress, she should be writing the regulations.
You are not going to be able to prevent audio compression so the whole ad will need to be limited to a percentage of the maximum audio signal allowed.
#8 GigG said “Usually when there is a problem it is because the local station has the pot for the volume from the various replay source set to high/low.”
So the following scenario will happen:
A: “Hey, WXYZ, this is MoneyCorp™ Inc. The FCC just fined us $bazillions because you morons aired one of our ads at 180dBa… fix it yesterday or consider your your ad revenue gone and your [lower back] sued into the stone-age.”
B:”Sir, yes Sir!”
A: “…also, we want the techie’s head on a plate.”
B: “Cooked or grilled?”
It’s not necessarily that the commercial is “louder”, it’s more the frequency the advertiser focuses the audio on. For instance in a 5.1 system, you will have the advertisement heavily focused on the centerchannel which will make it much more focused and in turn seem louder. Either way it’s annoying, abrasive, and intentional.
My denon receiver has a mode that will equalize the audio to avoid the jumps which works great. The technology is available on plenty of receivers. I generally leave it on for any television watching.
While I am not for it, the legislation shows a clear lack of understanding of the issue. It should be focused at banning advertisers from strategically bombarding certain frequencies rather than focusing on decibel level, which is not the problem.
John C Dvorak: TURN DOWN YOUR SPEAKERS!!!!
I don’t like loud commercials as much as the next guy, but I don’t think this warrants a regulation. A loud commercial isn’t going to harm the public and can be easily fixed by your mute button or fast forwarding on your dvr like I do. Why am I not surprised it came from California? You would think they have bigger problems.
#14 “Why is she asking the FCC to come up with regulations? She’s in Congress, she should be writing the regulations.”
That’s not how it works. Congress passes laws. And the laws give the power to the agencies to create regulations.
Congress could pass such a law but the agency would still have to write the regulation. I assume she thinks the law that would authorize such a regulation is already on the books. And I’m pretty sure she is right.
#16 It would be WXYZ that gets fined by the FCC. The FCC has no power over MoneyCorp.
But even in that case WXYZ an affiliate of the BIG television network has no way to know what the “average loudness” for a given show is going to be. Example, a really bad football game where nobody ever scores or even barely moves the ball is going to have a much lower “average loudness” than a game with a lot of back and forth in score.
This is a tech issue not a programing issue. My TV is completely capable of auto leveling and it does a pretty could job of it. The y required the V-Chip and Digital TV, a sound leveling chip ought to be a no-brainer.
I am no sure why automated modulation to control this cannot be done without Congress? It seems to me that this technology has been around a long time. Its just something that networks were afraid to do. In fact some TV’s already do this to some extent. Its too bad Congress has to get involved in such a issue.
I have not had cable tv for half a decade now. Broadband net satisfies the news for the most part and entertainment can be had as well. The reason for me getting rid of useless tv access was the boorish insipid and ear destroying COMMERCIALS!!!!
I detest the shouted, pandering low brow b.s. that is ‘the’ commercial. When I end up having one blasted at me from the net, my appreciation for their sponsorship of whatever I am viewing vanishes. The lasting impression usually leaves me avoiding the product.
The only time I catch cable tv anymore is when I travel and the hotel/motel has a poor net connection. I know better than to watch since I become furious with the crap. Its compounded by my slow hearing loss that requires me to have the volume high, then comes the jolting earsplitting commercial segment that lasts and lasts and….
I’ve always felt the volume issue is the stations fault. I wouldn’t mind a regulation requiring a station to “balance” their volume levels.
What the FCC really needs to go after, are these infomercials that try to pass themselves off as legitimate programs. Maybe even limit the total number of hours a day a station can use for informercials.
I knew a plant manager at a cable company that took great pride in the fact that he adjusted the volume on all channels to a consistent level. Some commercials would still be louder then the programing, but not by much.
Its one of those things you don’t notice, but when I moved to a different city I could tell the difference.
The thing is that Most companies won’t spend the to do this work, since there probably isn’t a clear benefit to justify the work.
To me a better place to require this kind of tuning would be in the franchise agreement that the cable company has with a local government. You can always contact your city or county council member and ask them to make this a requirement when the agreement gets renewed.
Let’s see how far it gets. Anything that appealing is bound to attract a swarm of lobbyists working against it. And let’s see how long it remains at 200 words before the riders start getting attached.
I always thought the volume difference was because advertising agencies record the commercial at a higher (louder) level. Similar to the difference in volume one notices when they download music from different sources. The better (or paid) desktop music players have what’s called “leveling” to fix this problem so your ears don’t get unexpectedly blasted when listing with headphones.
TV’s should have leveling built in (if that’s possible) or there should be a law.
Contrary to some folks that mute or skip the commercials, I actually like the funny ones but I tire of messing with the volume every time.
To follow up on 15 Canuck & 18 pedro, part of the problem is not necessarily the loudest sound but that all the other usually lower level sounds have been shifted or compressed up to higher volumes.
RBG
It doesn’t matter how loud they are after you hit the mute button.
So screaming is bad but boner pill ads on superbowl are okay?
IMAC. Stands for “I Mute All Commercials”. After a while it becomes as normal/automatic as putting on a seat belt before driving.
WOW! I support this 1000000%
“Yell and Sell!” seems to be the norm.
Ever notice that all the stations have commercials on at the same time?
Really , but does it take 14 commercials in a row at a break to support these stations?
I remember the commercials being a lot more interesting also…
LIke the Timex “take a licking and keep on ticking.. ”
TV SUCKS…