Television Broadcasters Have to Tone Down Loud Ads

[Guest]

The FCC has approved the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (or CALM) Act, which was signed into law by President Obama one year ago.

Television Broadcasters Have to Tone Down Loud Ads : Read more

 

[Parrdacc]

Well at least something is being done. I hate getting blasted by those commercials. Whoever thought cranking the volume to ear bleed level was going to sell products was an idiot.

 

[nebun]

about time....so why do they have until 2014?...can't the companies making the ad just bring down the volume after it has been edited?

 

[CaedenV]

Wasn't this done back in the '90s? Or is this further reducing the volume? I guess I dont really care as I have not watched TV for some 7 years now, and dont miss it at all.
Not saying I dont watch shows, but a few $ for hulu or Netflix vs a small mint for cable. Cable has commercials, while netflix and subscribed hulu do not. Not much though has to go into that conclusion!

 

[kin3000]

This is good. I hate every time I fall asleep with the TV on only to be woken up by a stupidly loud commercial.

 

[dgingeri]

When I watch Comedy Central on my current TV, I have to turn the volume up to 20 to hear the show, then turn it down to 8 to keep from getting overwhelmed by the commercials. It's totally bogus. Other channels aren't so bad, though. This is the very reason I avoid Comedy Central these days. SyFy is almost as bad, with TV shows needing to be up to 18 and commercials down to 12.

So many ad companies are run by absolutely stupid people: "We can't get them to watch our commercials by quality, let's force them to hear them from the other room!" If they'd just put some effort into doing their job right, they wouldn't have to resort to cheap tricks like raising the volume. I've written several letters to networks stating their commercials are annoying, including CC and SyFy, but it never made a difference.

I'm glad the government is doing this. The advertisers or networks sure aren't.

 

[sissysue]

Probably the only thing that Obama has done that I agree with.

 

[ojas]

How do you Americans and Europeans manage it? I mean make such cool acronyms? Seriously, there's this law with a really big name, and it just becomes a acronym that happens to be a normal word as well. Freaky...but cool...It's almost as if they find think of a word then expand it.
I remember reading a lot of cool sounding acronyms from the military and NASA and ESA...we can't really manage it here...

 

[willwayne]

I haven't watched many commercials at all recently, since the advent of the DVR.

 

[jgutz2006]

ITS MY MONEY AND I NEED IT NOW

Worst offender of all time for this would be JG Wentworth (not sure where this shows but at least in the upper midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin) this commercial will wake the dead if heaven forbid you leave your TV on at night!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0fIi3H-es

 

[willwayne]

I hope TV stations are innovating different ways to earn revenue, because I can see this commercial break thing being a completely outmoded income stream in just a few more years.

I don't mind clever and subtle product placement, but it's painful when it's obvious or intrusive to the show.

I bet they're thinking about banner ads during the actual show à la many free Android apps. I would HATE that.

 

[zybch]

The problem is that ad makers will still use the maximum volume level allowed and their ads will still sound a lot louder then the programming they appear with.

For example, a movie usually has quite a large volume range between its quiet scenes and its loudest (dynamic range - sort of). Just imagine a western with mostly just open vistas and talking, but interspersed with loud gunfights etc.
Ad makers will pitch their ads at the volume of the gunfights for the entirety of the ad, not the dialogue driven scenes, so the ads will STILL be a lot louder then the vast majority of the movie but the ad maker can claim that their content is no louder then the movie.

Its the same as we now see in todays music, with it all being compressed to hell so it sounds louder to the uninformed public that still idiotically thinks that loudness=quality.
Just go to youtube and do a search for 'the loudness war' and read the Rolling Stone story of the same name and you'll see what I mean.

 

[cybneo]

I produce TV commercials, and every AD agency has submission requirements for audio/video. Most are standard. When i preview the exported version it sounds fine. Not to loud. But i have gotten emails that my commercial is too loud on some networks. So im not sure who is cranking up the audio. Could it be the agency or the network? There is an approval process for every spot, so it should be controlled. Either way im glad there putting more effort to control this.

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]CaedenV[/nom]Wasn't this done back in the '90s? Or is this further reducing the volume? I guess I dont really care as I have not watched TV for some 7 years now, and dont miss it at all.Not saying I dont watch shows, but a few $ for hulu or Netflix vs a small mint for cable. Cable has commercials, while netflix and subscribed hulu do not. Not much though has to go into that conclusion![/citation]
You don't actually use Hulu Plus or you would know that you still have to deal with commercials even if you pay.

 

[lamorpa]

Yup. This time for sure. About once every 5 years, for the last 50 years, this is 'going to be fixed' Don't hold your breath. (Do hold your ears)

 

[JohnnyLucky]

My wife and I cannot stand the loud ads. Then I have to listen to my wife complain which makes it worse.

 

[lamorpa]

Bring back Sally Struthers!

 

[thrasher32]

[citation][nom]sissysue[/nom]Probably the only thing that Obama has done that I agree with.[/citation]

So you don't agree with:
- Ending the Iraq War
- Killing Osama Bin Laden
- Payroll tax cuts
- Extending the Bush tax cuts
- Fully funding the VA
- Banning lobbyist gifts to executive employees
- Doubling federal research money for developing alternative fuels
- Reversing the ban on stem cell research

(there are hundreds more)

Sounds like someone has been drinking a little too much Fox News kool-aid or just doesn't have the common sense to think for themselves.

 

[TheCapulet]

[citation][nom]thrasher32[/nom]So you don't agree with:- Ending the Iraq War- Killing Osama Bin Laden- Payroll tax cuts- Extending the Bush tax cuts- Fully funding the VA- Banning lobbyist gifts to executive employees- Doubling federal research money for developing alternative fuels- Reversing the ban on stem cell research(there are hundreds more)Sounds like someone has been drinking a little too much Fox News kool-aid or just doesn't have the common sense to think for themselves.[/citation]
Iraq war was already far drawn down
The CIA, funded and overseen by the Bush admin killed Osama, not Obama.
I haven't noticed a difference. Go figure? I've also heard unemployment is still increasing?
He didn't extend them, he swapped them with his own, but increasing them in other areas.
False.
But notably didn't ban lobbyist gifts to campaign resources.
Also giving trillions of dollars away to stagnant corporate structures and ungrateful countries, without taking a stand on improvement on anything
And I don't even agree with that. *eye-roll*

There aren't hundreds more. In fact, there are very few things that Obama has actually 'done', rather than just thought about or talked about. His list of Topics is epic. His list of accomplishments is nearly non-existent. No one seriously watches fox news. They're just like other news agencies. They have an agenda, and they'll sure as hell push it. But it does sound like you've been watching a bit too much "news" yourself.

Don't just think for yourself. Actually learn about the topics you're going to bullet, instead of attributing their accomplishment on a man who had nothing to do with them.

 

[thrasher32]

[citation][nom]TheCapulet[/nom]Iraq war was already far drawn downThe CIA, funded and overseen by the Bush admin killed Osama, not Obama. I haven't noticed a difference. Go figure? I've also heard unemployment is still increasing?He didn't extend them, he swapped them with his own, but increasing them in other areas. False.But notably didn't ban lobbyist gifts to campaign resources.Also giving trillions of dollars away to stagnant corporate structures and ungrateful countries, without taking a stand on improvement on anythingAnd I don't even agree with that. *eye-roll*There aren't hundreds more. In fact, there are very few things that Obama has actually 'done', rather than just thought about or talked about. His list of Topics is epic. His list of accomplishments is nearly non-existent. No one seriously watches fox news. They're just like other news agencies. They have an agenda, and they'll sure as hell push it. But it does sound like you've been watching a bit too much "news" yourself. Don't just think for yourself. Actually learn about the topics you're going to bullet, instead of attributing their accomplishment on a man who had nothing to do with them.[/citation]

Is that really the best you can do?