A Year After Ban On Loud TV Commercials: Has It Worked? 288
netbuzz writes "It's been a year since the FCC implemented the CALM Act, a law that prohibits broadcasters from blasting TV commercials at volumes louder than the programming. Whether the ban has worked or not depends on who you ask. The FCC notes that formal complaints about overly loud commercials are on the decline in recent months, but those complaints have totaled more than 20,000 over the past year."
No complaints here (Score:3, Insightful)
My analog TV died just before the switch to all-digital. I never replaced it. Been CALM ever since.
Wrong Forum (Score:5, Insightful)
Most /.'s I image don't put up with Ads.
I sure as hell haven't noticed ad volume - of course, I gave up broadcast TV with ads since I got my first TiVo in 2003. DVRs all they way, but nowadays I don't even watch TV that's not Netflix - only the kiddos have time to watch TV in our house (how else would I have time to post on /. ?)
It's not the commercials. (Score:5, Insightful)
...it's the switch from national programming to regional or zip-code based advertising.
Program.
National commercial.
National commercial.
REGIONAL COMMERCIAL
Program.
My cable network screws this up regularly on Comedy Central. South Park goes into break, and then a BLARING LOUD commercial for a local product happens.
I skip most commercials that aren't on during live sports -- but I watch a lot of live sports, and they're guilty too.
I blame an idiot working in the Cox video operations center.
Re:The issue has moved to the Internet (Score:5, Insightful)
Stop using the service then. Seriously. If something is that insanely bad then just go without.
Re:The issue has moved to the Internet (Score:3, Insightful)
Stop using the service then. Seriously. If something is that insanely bad then just go without.
That's the equivalent of saying "TV commercials are annoying, so stop watching TV at all." That's not a solution to the actual problem, that's just hiding from it. I love the actual service, I just find the intrusiveness of the commercials unnecessary( and counterproductive to the purpose of commercials i.e. to convince me to buy a product)
No teeth in the law (Score:4, Insightful)
The volumes haven't changed. Except it now seems like they start at a reasonable volume, then slowly increase in volume as the commercial continues. It could be that some people don't notice this. This also, no doubt, allows a commercial to still comply with the law since the ad's "average volume" can still be within the limits of the program it accompanies.
The complaint process itself is also extremely tedious. No person is going to want to key in all that information for every loud ad they have to suffer through.
In short: all the teeth were taken out of the law, so as usual we have another useless law that doesn't work and helps no one except those it is intended to control. Government by the people, my ass.
BTW, I'm seeing a lot of posts about how watching broadcast TV is "old-school", as if it is stupid to still be doing so. I would agree, except that it is still virtually impossible to watch live sporting events online. I'm not a sports nut, but I do like college football, and that means suffering through a lot of deafening ads.
Re:The issue has moved to the Internet (Score:4, Insightful)
This is exactly the kind of issue that should be talked about. I use more than one streaming service and now know not to even bother trying Spotify. This is the market in action, make sure you tell as many people as you can.
Re:The issue has moved to the Internet (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the equivalent of saying "TV commercials are annoying, so stop watching TV at all."
Yes, exactly like a completely valid and rational reaction, and a wholly achievable policy.
Its true: You don't have to use other peoples services unless you choose to ('cept for that whole health insurance mandate.)