Congress is pressing the Federal Communications Commission to do something about loud TV ads, the kind that seem to scream at you through the TV screen. The government may act soon, but broadcasters may act sooner.
McClatchy Co. reported:
“Currently, TV ads can’t be louder than the loudest peak in a show, said David Perry, the chairman of the broadcast production committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies in New York. Ads often seem louder to viewers, he added, because a program’s volume peak rarely comes just before an ad.
“‘Every time the ads came on they blew me out of my seat, said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who introduced the bill last June. “It really turns you off, makes you think, ‘I’ll be damned if I give them any of my money.’
“She’s a member of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, which will consider the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, aka CALM. It has 63 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate.
“Broadcasters say they have their own plan to lower TV ad volume, which could take effect within a couple of months. The switch to digital TV on Friday, they say, also could help by enabling advertisers to use a wider range of sounds, instead of relying on pure volume to get attention.
“Dan Jaffe, the executive vice president for government relations of the New York-based Association of National Advertisers, said that advertising and broadcasting industry leaders knew that loud commercials annoyed customers because they’d received numerous complaints.”
WWSB-TV in Sarasota, Fla., explained why commercials sometimes seem louder than programming:
“There are two basic reasons why some commercials seem louder. Many commercials contain music, and music nearly always sounds louder than a simple spoken voice. The type of music understandably has a major effect on this phenomenon.
“The second cause is called audio compression. This has the effect of making softer sounds louder, so the whole commercial is of a uniform volume. Many commercials are produced with some compression, whereas speech based programs generally are compressed only a little.”
