Legal
Legislation
59
BY Hannah Van ValkenbUrg
CALM Act:
Nobody Listens to the Act, But We Still Hear the Loud Ads!
What seemed like a good idea, only a small handful are in compliance...
Set into motion on December 13, 2013, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) issued the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act. This Act mandated that the average volume of any commercial on broadcasted or cable television must be no louder than the average volume of the preceding television program, and barring commercials that exceed this limit.
To implement these new regulations, the CALM Act required all commercial distributors to enforce the “Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television”. The Act, which had legitimately been passed in December of 2012, had allotted a grace period of one year for commercial advertising companies to make the required changes to their commercials, with routine checks over the following two years to ensure compliance from the commercial distributors.
However, since these rules have come into effect, more than 20,000 consumer complaints have been filed with the FCC due to lack of change.
While meeting the consumer’s demand was the basis of enforcing the CALM Act, loose ends and loopholes have been left unattended to and have allowed commercial advertisements to gain the power to override the system. The CALM Act is set on the basis that advertisements aired should not exceed the average volume of the preceding television program, not at all setting a specific maximum or minimum volume boundaries for commercials to follow. Though this creates some regulation, companies advertising their products and services on television have used this loophole to their advantage. Here lies the problem.
Following the rule that the average volume must match that of the preceding television shows, commercial advertisements have lowered certain portions of their commercial to obscenely low volumes while raising other portion to volumes louder than ever before. This unregulated “tinkering” has caused the entire purpose of the CALM Act to be obscured and unnoticeable to consumers, as volumes still remain at different levels and some are still following the old practice of being louder than the program it precedes.
For now, there is no bite to CALM; unless (and until) the federal government (that created the Act and should be overseeing it) steps-in, commercial television watchers will have to endure the (now) age-old practice of muting the commercials when their favorite show breaks for a sponsor’s advertisement.
Broadcast Beat Magazine / Sep-Dec, 2014