Support This Blogger

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

YAAAY -- FCC moves to squelch extra-loud TV commercials

Those of us with a long memory will remember that in June of 2009, I posted THIS ARTICLE about a proposed bill that was before Congress, to limit the volume of TV commercials.

Well, freaking FINALLY, the FCC is telling TV advertisers to lower the volume of commercials. Gotta love bureaucrats -- it only took two and a half years from the time of that first article until there was concrete action to report today.

FCC tells advertisers to CALM down, lowers the volume on commercial breaks

Pretty soon, you won't have to scramble to lower the volume during noisy commercial breaks -- that's if you even watch live TV. After making its way through Capitol Hill, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (or CALM) -- which aims to keep the sounds coming out of your flat panel even-keeled -- has just been adopted in a ruling by the FCC. Starting next December, ads and promos will have to remain in-step with the audio levels of scheduled programming. While the affected parties have a full year to get their acts together, the main burden of enforcement lies with broadcasters and MVPDs like Comcast and Verizon FiOS. So, come next holiday season, you'll be able to tune in and tune out without being blown away.

No comments: