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Television Advertising

Commercials Are Still Too Loud, Say 'Thousands' of Recent FCC Complaints (arstechnica.com) 23

Posted by BeauHD from the muted dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Thousands" of complaints about the volume of TV commercials have flooded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in recent years. Despite the FCC requiring TV stations, cable operators, and satellite providers to ensure that commercials don't bring a sudden spike in decibels, complaints around loud commercials "took a troubling jump" in 2024, the government body said on Thursday.

Under The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, broadcast, cable, and satellite TV providers are required to ensure that commercials "have the same average volume as the programs they accompany," per the FCC. The FCC's rules about the volume of commercials took effect in December 2012. The law also requires linear TV providers to use the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC's) recommended practices. The practices include guidance around production, post production, metadata systems usage, and controlling dynamic range. If followed, the recommendations "result in consistency in loudness and avoidance of signal clipping," per the ATSC [PDF]. The guidance reads: "If all programs and commercials were produced at a consistent average loudness, and if the loudness of the mix is preserved through the production, distribution, and delivery chain, listeners would not be subjected to annoying changes in loudness within and between programs."

As spotted by PC Mag, the FCC claimed this week that The Calm Act initially reduced complaints about commercials aggressively blaring from TVs. However, the agency is seeing an uptick in grievances. The FCC said it received "approximately" 750 complaints in 2022, 825 in 2023, and "at least" 1,700 in 2024 [PDF]. Since The Calm Act regulates a commercial's average loudness, some advertisers may be skirting the spirit of the law by making commercials very loud at the start (to get viewers' attention) before quieting down for the rest of the ad. In response to growing complaints, the FCC is reexamining its rules and this week announced that it's seeking comment from "consumers and industry on the extent to which The CALM Act rules are effective." The FCC is also asking people to weigh in on what future actions the FCC, the TV industry, or standard developers could take. The FCC is considering whether to extend the Calm Act to online streaming services, which are increasingly offering plans with ad-supported models and live event broadcasts.

Commercials Are Still Too Loud, Say 'Thousands' of Recent FCC Complaints More | Reply

Commercials Are Still Too Loud, Say 'Thousands' of Recent FCC Complaints

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  • Either I'm getting too old and too cranky, or what passes for screenwriters these days have next to zero ability to make me give two fucks about the characters in the story.

    Either they're all tragically flawed whatevers. Or they exist solely as Mary Sues for whatever demographic the show is pandering to. Or they lack believable motivation.

    Perhaps this isn't new. Woody Allen has been writing unlikeable cardboard cutout characters for longer than I've been alive, after all.

    Point is...there's a fallacy at play

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      While I agree completely on the (lack of) quality of television these days, I will point out that ads are the reason fast forward buttons exist. And if that doesn't work, there's still the mute button.

      Or a good book.

      Or stabbing myself in the eye with a red hot titanium spork, which would still be preferable to most television.

    • I agree with what you are saying. But the ads are louder than the program.
      The mute button is the most used button on my remote.
      The picture is also brighter during the commercials too. Their is no mute button for the screen though.
      But I do have presets, which I programmed one to reduce screen brightness, contrast and color intensity about 60% less.
      Then I just read Slashdot during the ads. I can usually get through all the articles in one evening.

  • I admit I don't understand this. On our TV we switch between Netflix, Disney+, a few others. In general most of those services I can watch with the TV on the same setting; call it 50-60 out of 100 max.

    But if we go to YouTube to watch some video (often a kids thing), 18-20 is manageable but anything higher than that blows out my eardrums. And YouTube's ads are much louder than their videos and much louder than say Hulu's free-to-stream-with-ads loudness.

    It shouldn't be too hard for the FCC to set a s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hadlock ( 143607 )

      We just pay for the ad-free versions of streaming services. Prime is "free", netflix is ~$20, and youtube premium is ~$20, as is disney+. Our toddler is so shielded from commercials she calls it out as a novelty when she sees one "look! it's a commercial!". The only downside is that I find out events like the superbowl happened after the fact, which might be a pro in some people's books rather than a con.

    • Streaming falls outside of the compliance as it's not TV. For the se reasons you can hear someone curse or see nudity on the internet. The service might self police to dissuade FCC oversight but anything goes and that includes loud commercials.

  • Then actually contact the FCC to complain about this, GFY.
  • I've blown my ears to pieces with years of blasting heavy metal, so this issue doesn't really affect me, only people with actually decent hearing.

  • Hi, Billy Mays here for CCC.

    CCC = Cheap Chinese Crap

  • They blast the commercials out as loud as they can get away with, but they can't be bothered to include closed captions so that those of us with hearing problems that can't be solved by higher volume can understand them. If you want to see what I mean, mute the TV when the commercials start and see how well you can tell what they're pitching that way. Yes, some of them put text and/or logos into their ads, but all too many depend on your hearing the pitch and give you no other way to find out what they're

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      They blast the commercials out as loud as they can get away with, but they can't be bothered to include closed captions so that those of us with hearing problems that can't be solved by higher volume can understand them.

      Either you're watching very old shows, or you're not filing complaints. [nad.org]

      As of January 1, 2006, 100% of all new, non-exempt, English language video programming must have closed captions. “New” means programming that is shown for the first time on or after January 1, 1998.

      • The shows all have captions, although some of the captioning is piss poor, with only about 40% of the dialog captioned, or the answers left uncaptioned on game shows. But when it comes to commercials, there are very few captions, leading me to believe that commercials are exempt from that requirement. If you don't believe me, watch some commercial TV and mute the commercials so you can see for yourself.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by SeaFox ( 739806 )

          The shows all have captions, although some of the captioning is piss poor, with only about 40% of the dialog captioned, or the answers left uncaptioned on game shows.

          Time to file complaints, sir. [nad.org]

          These rules went into effect on January 15, 2015.

          But when it comes to commercials, there are very few captions, leading me to believe that commercials are exempt from that requirement. If you don't believe me, watch some commercial TV and mute the commercials so you can see for yourself.

          I can tell you didn't read that link in my first reply.

          Advertisements (commercials) that are less than five minutes long are not considered “video programming” and are, therefore, not required to have closed captions.

          Personally I'm not interested in ads so... feature, not bug?

  • Does the FCC even still have employees at this point?

    • It should be pointed out that the kind of statistics discussed here (number of complaints about specific issues) are what will disappear after all the cuts.

      It's not just about letting corporations run wild, it's about preventing you from even knowing what they're doing. Making sure you stay ignorant.

    • Just show a nipple or two on broadcast TV, and the FCC will wake up and go ultimate avenging moral crusader plus they won't have to worry about DOGE for a while. (our priorities are really fucked up)
  • They're just accelerating their own demise. Loud ads was one of the primary reasons I stopped having the TV on during meal times... about the only time I'm anywhere near the TV. Now I just scroll through an iPad quickly for news, before talking with the rest of the family (and talk about said news). Much better than having stupid ads blaring in my earhole. I will be glad if they all go bankrupt.

    • Most people didn't replace TV with the written word, they replaced it with YouTube. They don't even pretend to regulate ad volume YouTube.

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