FCC Establishes Regulations to CALM Commercials Volume
In the last few months I have noticed an increase in the number of times that a commercial has come on running at a surprisingly high volume. Not that this is new problem, but, anecdotally, it seems to have gotten worse recently. How appropriate then that the FCC has issued regulations to support the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM) passed by Congress last year. The regulations also set forth a system for lodging complaints with the FCC. Given the waiver provisions built into the regulations, it will probably take a few years for broadcasters to come into alignment, but by this time in 2014 all commercials should be broadcast at the same average volume of the program in which the commercials are embedded. The cynic in me wonders if we will see sudden random spikes in the volume of programs in order to raise the average volume.
The Federal Communications Commission has passed a new regulation known as the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM). The new measure aims to combat obnoxiously loud television commercials, an issue we have all likely experienced firsthand.