SCHUMER BACKED LEGISLATION TO REDUCE EAR-PIERCING TV COMMERCIAL VOLUME PASSES COMMERCE COMMITTEE
Schumer, Whitehouse Legislation Would Require FCC to Regulate Ear-Shattering Television Commercial Volume; Commercial Volume Could Be No Louder Than Volume of Program Viewer is Watching
Extreme Volume from Television Commercials Consistently Tops List of Consumer Complaints to FCC
The Senate Commerce Committee voted to approve legislation backed by U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Sheldon Whitehouse that would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the volume of television advertisements. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act of 2009 (S. 2847) would require the volume of television advertisements to be no louder than the volume of the program during which the advertisements appear.
"It's about time we turned down the volume on loud commercials that try to startle TV watchers into paying attention. This is a simple step that will keep ads at the same decibel level as the programs they are interrupting. TV viewers should be able to watch their favorite programs without fear of losing their hearing when the show goes to a commercial," Schumer said.
Television viewers have complained for years that extreme increases in volume between programming and commercials are unsettling and jarring. In fact, in the 25 quarterly reports on consumer complaints released by the FCC since 2002, 21 have listed as a top complaint the loudness of television commercials. Last year Consumers Union, the nonprofit organization that publishes Consumer Reports, stated in testimony before the House of Representatives, "the CALM Act provides an elegant and common sense solution to finally ending a forty-five year consumer complaint in the
Once enacted, advertisers and productions companies would be given one year to put in place measures to balance television commercial volume with that of programming or face penalties from the FCC.