This is awesome news I have to admit! Then of course I have ask why did it take so long for this to happen?! I know the answer, it’s the government and the lobbyists of course that delayed it and made it take so long to become a reality. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act has gone into effect today. I know I hate watching TV at night because of the commercials and them being to loud, it’s just so annoying having to sit there with a remote in my hand at all time waiting to lower the volume or hit mute. The act says no more loud commercials and even threatens them with fines if they disobey, which is a good thing, but I won’t believe it until I see it actually happen. The Do Not Call List doesn’t work at all really from what I’ve seen, I still get spam phone calls, got three yesterday as a matter of fact. These government programs or laws or acts or whatever you call them are all well and good on the surface, but how much good do they really do?
Take this CALM Act for instance, companies don’t have to follow the law or act if they can prove it will hurt them monetarily. I can see now all of these companies crying about losing money because the commercials are too low. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens…
Anyway, here’s the beginning of the act for you:
In this document, the Commission adopts rules to implement the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (“CALM”) Act. Among other things, the CALM Act directs the Commission to incorporate into its rules by reference and make mandatory a technical standard, developed by an industry standards development body, that is designed to prevent digital television commercial advertisements from being transmitted at louder volumes than the program material they accompany. As mandated by the statute, the rules apply to digital TV broadcasters, digital cable operators, and other digital multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”). Also per the statute, the rules will take effect one year after adoption, and will therefore be effective as of December 13, 2012. The rules adopted are designed to protect viewers from excessively loud commercials and, at the same time, permit broadcasters and MVPDs to implement their obligations in a minimally burdensome manner. The Commission will require broadcast stations and MVPDs to ensure that all commercials are transmitted to consumers at the appropriate loudness level in accordance with the industry standard.
You can read the whole thing here: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/07/09/2012-16165/implementation-of-the-commercial-advertisement-loudness-mitigation-calm-act