Excesively loud television ads

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WASHINGTON — With the year-end holiday television advertising blitz in full swing and political pitches set to swamp US airwaves in 2010, US lawmakers were taking aim Friday at loud commercials.

Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has unveiled separate legislation that would require television advertisements to be no louder than the programs during which they appear, and a similar proposal is pending in the House.

"The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act of 2009" would require the US Federal Communications Commission to regulate the ads' volume.

"Every day millions of Americans are barraged with abrasively loud television commercials," Whitehouse said in a statement that declared it time "to dial down to normal the loudness of these ads."

The legislation, which would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set new rules, was unveiled with year-end holiday advertising booming and with campaign commercials ahead of the November 2010 US mid-term elections set to launch in earnest.

The proposal faces scrutiny by relevant committees in the Senate and House of Representatives, which must approve the same legislation in order to send it to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

In a June fact sheet posted on its Internet site, the FCC said loudness was subjective and that broadcasters and program producers had "considerable latitude."

"Manually controlling volume levels with the remote control remains the simplest approach to reducing excessive volume levels," it said. "The 'Mute' button on TV remote controls is also useful to 'blank' excessively loud audio."

News clip taken from Google news.

I find it a great distraction from the work I'm doing to stop every few minutes to turn the volume down and then back up. I like leaving the tely on 24 hours a day but I always turn it off when I go to bed because the commercials cut in and give me a headache. I would leave it on if it stayed at a nice whisper.

[Hidinger]

I am almost positive current rules are that a commercial can be as loud as the loudest noise during the show. That is why, if you care to notice, commercials that are on during talk shows are remarkably quieter then those during movies (where you will inevitably get a gun shot or something insanley loud). I had to basicly mute my tv everytime they had a commercial after the Mythbusters episode where they blew up the cement truck. Apparently half of the commercials chose THAT noise to be their volume level. Almost blew out a speaker on the tv...

[KiwiArcader]

Speaking of loud ...... anyone tried the Terminator Salvation blu-ray?

Wow ... the intro music is just incredibly loud with a level of base bordering on insane. Luckily the wife was next door the first time I played it or I would've been in seroius, serious trouble.

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I am almost positive current rules are that a commercial can be as loud as the loudest noise during the show. That is why, if you care to notice, commercials that are on during talk shows are remarkably quieter then those during movies (where you will inevitably get a gun shot or something insanley loud). I had to basicly mute my tv everytime they had a commercial after the Mythbusters episode where they blew up the cement truck. Apparently half of the commercials chose THAT noise to be their volume level. Almost blew out a speaker on the tv...

I haven't read the rules but I agree, they must have a program that picks up the information and bases their level off the show but, sometimes I watch quiet dramas where there is no special effects or explosions and the levels are low but then an infomercial comes on and even though the announcer is screaming, it seems like the whole skit has the volume turned up.

However the courts decide, they should set up a decibel meter in a benchmark room and keep the actual sound coming from the speakers the same. I think this is what the lawyers are going for.

[Mister Zero]

Finally! This had better make it through. My area is notorious for loud local commercials.

Now if they could get a law against catchy jingles into place..