Annoying Loud TV Commercials To Get Scrutiny From the FCC (bloomberg.com) 96
Here's something to do if that TV commercial is too loud: complain to the feds, who just might do something about it. From a report: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Monday asked for public help to determine whether to update rules to prevent broadcast, cable and satellite providers from sending commercials that are louder than the programming they accompany. "In particular, we invite consumers to tell us their experiences," the agency's media bureau said in a public notice. The action follows an April 13 letter from Representative Anna Eshoo asking FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to look into a reported increase in complaints about loud commercials. Eshoo wrote a 2010 law, known as the CALM Act, or Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, that underpins FCC rules that may be changed. The FCC has never sought to enforce the act, despite receiving thousands of complaints, Eshoo said. A recent press report said complaints to the FCC had increased "sharply," Eshoo wrote. "This worries me a great deal." Eshoo mentioned a March 31 report in Business Insider that said complaints to the FCC for the four-month period from November to February rose 140% compared to the same period a year earlier.
Mute was a wonderful invention (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Mute was a wonderful invention (Score:5, Insightful)
Annoying ads is what makes people stop watching TV. You can run a decent adblocker on your computer and find a lot of content online.
Too much ads is also why shows are pirated.
Re: Mute was a wonderful invention (Score:3)
I wonder why TVs don't have automatic volume leveling (or whatever it's called) to keep the volume at a constant level?
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Some do. I had a Samsung many years ago with that feature, and many soundbars have automatic levelling and compression.
The problem is that volume is not just a function of amplitude. A heavily compressed "wall of sound" can have the same amplitude as a clear and well separated soundtrack but be perceived as much louder.
As ever, the only option is to block. Hit mute, or use an ad blocker.
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Not to mention, sometime the sound editing of something relies on having both "silent" and "loud" parts - like in "Saving Private Ryan" beach assault scene. Or "Band of Brothers" - eerily silent at one moment, and all hell breaks loose the next.
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"Dynamic range compression" solves this if you have equipment where it works well.
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Yup, and I want that crap leveled out too. Which my tv does quite nicely. I'm sure a lot of cinematic thought went into blowing the hell out of that beach, but the story can be told just as well with out the neighbors thinking D-Day is happening in the apartment next door.
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until recently, the problem has been that the ear's perception of volume and analog circuitry's perception are different.
Advertisers gimmicked the wave shape to appear louder to the ear than to the electronics.
I suspect that with current digital electronics, measuring human-perceived volume would be trivial, but I haven't seen references to products that do this.
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We actually have regulations here in Australia about advertisements being too loud since I was a kid in the 1980s. Unfortunately advertisers just get around it by using heavy compression on the advertisement audio to give the psychoaccoustic impression of being loud.
There actually used to be ad blocker type hardware boxes that I think worked by looking at the loudless of the video and blocking at those points. From memory they didnt work very well at all.
Re: Mute was a wonderful invention (Score:2)
This would be a swell time to put modern, 21st century technology to use to detect this compression, and mute the audio until it no longer senses it. This sampling/mute could be done in mere milliseconds.
Of course if the show is on a shitpot channel that uses this for normal programming as well, then you are SOL, but usually it would just be old shows repackaged as shovelware anyway.
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Re: Mute was a wonderful invention (Score:2)
So, I view TV advertisers as friends who cares about my health. Web advertisers, OTOH, are a**holes who are enabling the mass surveillance of the internet and the degradation of privacy.
Re: Mute was a wonderful invention (Score:1)
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"If advertising didn't work it would go away" is an outrageous fallacy on the face of it.
Advertising doesn't go away because the people who buy it are convinced to take the chance that it works.
The people who have the data that might show how well it works--those who sell the advertising--have no incentive whatsoever to be open with that data.
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I started muting or changing channel in the 1990s (usually changing to my Scart input for a bit of Amiga action for a few minutes) when the adverts were getting louder and more annoying. I hardly ever see an advert on TV now. These days I always mute and go on the internet until things are back, or I record them and start watching 15 mins in to catch up by skipping the ads.
I don't think TV ads have ever got me to buy anything, but they have stopped my from buying things when the ads have annoyed me.
FCC really springing into action (Score:5, Funny)
Man, don't piss off the FCC!
60 years after you start doing something abusive, they'll start a commission - and they'll totally start considering the practices your grandson is still doing. Give them another 5 years.. 20 years tops... and they'll have some toothless regulations for this dying industry.
And if you break them, gosh darnit they will give you such a warning... maybe.
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Commercials can sometimes fool decibel meters by targeting key hearing frequencies instead of leaving things full spectrum. While a TV show probably doesn't bother doing much more than a high pass and low pass within hearing range with a bit of EQ to sweeten, a commercial will hard high and low pass audio to target the most sensitive areas of human hearing, with key boosts in the midrange that is what most humans hear the best. Having music equipment around that can analyze the sounds can be quite telling
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Man, don't piss off the FCC!
I think you'll have a hard time trying to surpass Eric Idle [archive.org] in doing that...
Smart TVs, huh (Score:5, Interesting)
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With the way incentives are structured in these industries, I’d place my bet on the opposite: "smart" TVs are more likely to be programmed to increase the audible volume of ads as a means for generating post-sale income for the TV manufacturer, rather than decreasing or normalizing it.
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Yes indeed - a "smart" TV that prevented the mute button working in ads would probably be able to claw some more money out of advertisers, and so reduce the sale price of the TV in stores. As such, it'd be the most "popular" TV available, heralding a whole new era of TVs that don't do what the consumer wants.
Sadly, paying more for a TV doesn't guarantee anything, but paying less for one encourages more and more "smart" crap :-(
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The one thing they could use their "smarts" for in determining when an ad is on and normalizing the volume, and it's not a standard feature.
Some sound bars/receivers can do this already.
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All TV is pretty much normalized to -6dB. The problem is that overall loudness is more than just the peaks. With TV commercials, they're compressed so heavily that the whole waveform is mostly a peak.
This is still a "thing"? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have MAD magazines (actual print on paper, remember that?) from the 1950s making jokes about this...
Well, paperbacks, but same idea.
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I'm not sure why any advertiser thinks I would be more likely to purchase their product or service if they annoy me by forcing me to turn down the volume when their commercial is aired.
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Maybe the story is a dupe.
Re: This is still a "thing"? (Score:4, Informative)
The regulation was put in but then the ad makers found out that nobody took the effort of punishing them.
Re: This is still a "thing"? (Score:1)
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Next is embedded players? (Score:5, Informative)
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Even he would turn over in his grave at the loudness of commercials.
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More complaints? (Score:3)
So complaints went up in 2020? Perhaps that had something to do with there being a lot more people stuck at home with nothing to do but watch tv and write complaints about it?
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Sound compressors (Score:5, Interesting)
Many times in the past these guys have been accused of blasting TV commercials at a volume level higher than that of the program they accompany. When this was found to be true, they changed strategy and began using voice and sound compression. This technique raises the average energy level of the sound without raising its peak value. The volume of the commercial can be measured with a sound pressure meter and the peak volume is not higher than that of the program containing it even though it is subjectively considerably louder. They also tend to use very noisy backgrounds, with lots of music, crowd noise, etc. to fill any silence that remains. The ones that always annoyed me most were the noisy American Toyota commercials, which often simulated a party of some kind with noisemakers and balloons surrounding the commercial message.
Re: Sound compressors (Score:2)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
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I can't even listen to the radio anymore. All the music is so compressed to hell that there's no dynamics at all. It's ridiculous.
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The worst ones compress the sound so hard it sounds like things sound when you have a fever on the edge of delirium. You might think they wouldn't want their product associated with being that sick...
Of course, given some commercials out there I can only conclude that even ad agencies hate some of their clients.
Re: Sound compressors (Score:2)
And when that happens, in my mind I say "shut up already". Really, are they so desperate that they have to jump around screaming "Look at meee!". Last I heard, Toyota wasn't hurting for money.
Interestingly enough, the "little guys" seem to be a bit quieter on average.
This is the audio equivalent of a Javashit page overlay that you are trying to get out of the way as fast as you can. Only this is an unwanted "overlay" over my peace and quiet.
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Last I heard, Toyota wasn't hurting for money.
So you're confirming it's working for them then?
Re: Sound compressors (Score:2)
When was Toyota ever on the verge of bankruptcy? The point I was trying to make is that Toyota is doing well enough and is well known enough that they don't need to resort to desperate attention grabbing tactics.
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Unless they are doing well enough because of their advertising shenanigans.
They are a company, if they think doing this makes them more money, they will do it.
Re: Sound compressors (Score:2)
Blasting your commercial 'loud' (using compression) will only get you so far, especially with an investment like a car. People tend to do a bit of research before putting down money for such an expensive item.
Really, how did blasting their commercials vs playing them at normal volume help Toyota profit? I doubt the numbers were anywhere near significant.
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It helps with brand awareness, You're still talking about it now. So at least you remembered it. And now you've gone and reminded me.
The benefit may be small, but the cost could be even smaller.
I guess it's possible some number of people would be so annoyed they would refuse to buy a Toyota. But People tend to do a bit of research before putting down money for such an expensive item. So it may not really hurt them.
I was about to say the same (Score:2)
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Which is why the audio industry has developed a measuring method that looks at the average energy level [sweetwater.com] instead of the peaks. This is commonplace on the web these days: sites like Youtube normalize all incoming audio using this method instead of just looking at the peaks.
Commercials can still be annoying because they're so overcompressed, but unless the TV station still uses outdated leveling methods they shouldn't be louder.
Sound Compressors - Legislate RMS (Score:3)
Rather than compare peak volume levels between commercial and program, why not compare RMS values? That's a much fairer way of doing things, essentially looking at the 'average' volume. I prepare audiobooks for distribution and the majority of retailers specify not only peak limit but give a window for the RMS level. So it's not as if it's a particularly difficult concept to understand or measure. But then... when has common sense ever come into things?!
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Compression and EQ tricks are used all the time in commercials. Sucking out the lows that use up power and speaker travel and boosting the mids for that "in your face" tone tends to allow a much LOUDER sound without ticking the db meter any higher. And they've been aware of that for quite some time now.
TV commercials? (Score:1)
Are you telling me Slashdot readers still watch cable/satellite?! (wait for it....)
I haven't had cable in over 15 years! (and there it is)
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^ This guy Slashdot-area mans!
Right (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is exactly - none.
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Difference is, with TV/whatever ads, they know who to go after... The network.
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Still using TiVo (Score:2)
Usually.
But I know these reports are accurate. They've been either reducing the program volume or raising the commercial volume for quite some time now.
No, spam. (Score:3)
Secondly, I'd much prefer the telephone marketers and scams be dealt with by the FCC more so than anything else. Elderly are getting hurt. You can't mute you phone. TV is mostly entertainment; communication with others, less so.
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People still watch TV? (Score:2)
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Can't work.
As TV production quality improves the dynamic range of some programs has increased. Sitcoms and news have pretty flat dynamics, action shows have wide dynamics. The same thing has happened with commercials too.
How do you regulate the volume of the same commercial against shows with high average levels vs. lower average levels? What about if the same commercial gets shown during the same show after a quiet passage vs. a big explodo-fest?
OK, lets assume you've legislated a complex solution whe
Cancel culture (Score:2)
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Remember when cancel culture used to be called market forces, until it became rather inconvenient to the wrong people. All of a sudden, market forces are “woke”. Poor old right wingers, struggling to deny reality.
about time (Score:2)
promises, promises (Score:1)
last time they made a toothless attempt at this all it ended up doing is forcing the commercial producers to collude with the television producers to make the unacceptable volume manipulation tactics happen slightly more gradually in order to avoid automated detection that apparently by the letter of the law only was required to prevent instantaneous volume spikes
TV Commericals! now there is something (Score:2)
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I have a ball-in-a-cup for my entertainment.
Ever since my toddlers saw two girls and a cup, that's been the entertainment around here.
Sirius/XM Radio has been doing this (Score:2)
Sirius/XM Radio has been pissing me off by cranking up the volume on commercials they serve during commercial breaks on their network news channels. On the rare occasions when I venture out of the public broadcasting-type news channels and check out the network news channels I'm reminded of this evil. Really frakking annoying.
Quit complaining and just quit ... TV (Score:1)
commercials got louder and more frequent. My solution is to quit. I haven't watched TV in several years. There are plenty of other options. Hurt their pocketbooks and they will change,
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Problems (Score:2)
Loud commercials is a problem that can be solved by pressing a button on a remote control. I don't think we need the federal government to get involved.
Sigh. (Score:2)
Welcome to 2008, America.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/... [thisismoney.co.uk]
Hear Hear! Or Here Here! (Score:1)
Here's an idea... (Score:2)
Here's an idea: if you want to waste your time, complain to the FCC.
Any individual's complaint to a government organization carries exactly 0.000 weight; maybe less. These organizations only respond to top-down pressure, or to very large pressure groups who are perceived to have political clout.
All bark no bite.... (Score:1)
The biggest issue as I see it has been the absolute lack of any sort of meaningful enforcement by the FCC of anything in the past few decades.
The FCC has been sitting around like an old fat toothless dog that occasionally barks for many years now, IMO this is why nobody takes them seriously any more, and I doubt this will change any time soon.
Seems like they become more of a joke day by day. First they promised to quiet all the loud commercials which never happened, then they promised to stop all the scamm
Loud-seeming commercials (Score:1)
All I can say is... (Score:1)