Ban On Loud TV Commercials Takes Effect Today

netbuzz writes "A new law banning broadcasters from delivering TV commercials at a higher volume takes effect today at the end of a yearlong implementation period. Called the CALM Act, or Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, the law does provide for violators to be fined. TV commercials that crank up the volume have been the No. 1 complaint logged with the FCC over the last 10 years."

Myth TV plugin?

[Hatta]

It seems that the FCC is relying on citizen complaints for enforcement. I think a great opportunity is to be had by a Myth TV plugin that automatically checks the RMS amplitude of the commercials and forwards a complaint if it's outside of spec. Clearly we can't rely on the FCC to actually monitor the airwaves for enforcement, but we could do so ourselves pretty easily.

And Internet Streaming?

[FurtiveGlancer]

Does the law encompass Hulu and other internet streaming services? Loud and repetitious ads are worse than merely repetitious ads.

Re:I am so relieved

[Anonymous Coward]

If you live in an apartment (or even just share a house with other people), suddenly-fluctuating sound levels can pose quite a problem -- particularly if you like to watch TV at night. Commercials are nothing, though, compared to the foley mix on just about every DVD I've ever watched (why they can't come up with a dialogue-prominent audio track I'll never understand).

sometime it's just stupidity

[Thud457]

One of our local stations seems incompetently unable to match the line level when they insert their local commercials into the national feed. This also happens on certain cable channels, so maybe it's the cable operator at fault.

I've seen this kind of idiocy many places on many different cable and OTA systems.

Re:sometime it's just stupidity

[cayenne8]

So, will this address the commercials compressing their sound so that it SEEMS to sound louder...?

Re:Great Taxpayer Spending

[geekoid]

Yes, stupid government responding to an outcry from the people~

You want roads and better education? Tell the republicans to reinstate the proper taxes to support those expenses.

Re:Mixed feelings.

[PapaSmurphy]

Your only choice as a consumer is to just turn off TVs.

Which, BTW, is an excellent choice.

Yep, it sure is! It works in all similar situations too.

Don't regulate spam. If people don't want spam, they can just turn off their internet.

Don't regulate traffic speed. If people don't want car wrecks, they can just turn not drive anywhere.

Don't regulate yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater. If people don't want to be stampeded to death, they can just not go out in public.

See, this works for everything doesn't it.