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QUIET PLEASE

FCC Bans Loud Television Ads

The efforts of lawmakers to force commercial quiet are finally paying off

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

That "question mark guy" Matthew Lesko / Image: charge-shot.com

It's the shot heard 'round the world by broadcasters used to pushing ear-shattering TV commercials: the FCC has now banned them.

The agency is forcing industry to keep television commercials only as loud as the programs they accompany, reports the New York Daily News. The move was announced last year following passage of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, purportedly to allow broadcasters ample time to adapt to the new rules.

"Loud TV commercials that make consumers run for the mute button or change the channel altogether will be a thing of the past," said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who authored the legislation leading to the ban.

While perhaps an annoyance to advertisers who've thus far relied on annoyingly loud TV spots, at least one legislator thinks it will actually help their bottom line.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y) believes the law will "make it more likely that consumers will actually watch the commercials."

Via the New York Daily News.
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Comments (view in Forum)

  • Keyjo
    !
    @Fishbone345
    Yeah, both my surround sound amps have mute buttons. But what a pain, having to rush to find the remote and mute the sound in an effort to NOT disturb the occupants upstairs.
  • Fishbone345
    !
    @Keyjo So because of your ease others shouldn't be allowed to market a certain way?
    This is no different from parents who want certain programming banned because they are too lazy to watch their kids.
  • Keyjo
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    @Fishbone345
    Oh come on, FB. No one is saying they can't advertise, but it's obnoxious when the volume suddenly increases 5 decibels. If you are viewing at a comfortable level, so as to NOT disturb others, then suddenly your sleeping neighbors are screaming at you to turn down the television.
    Like the article mentioned, it probably will make it MORE likely viewers will watch and LISTEN to the ad.
  • View all 32 replies >
  • u
    mtkopf
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    Let me say that quite often these commercials will wake up my 2 yr old son. They have become such an annoyance that I record all my programs now and fast forward all the commercials.
  • View all 27 replies >
  • UnCommonBoston
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    Increasing the volume for commercials increases the chance people will hit the mute button! With TIVO and OnDemand, I don't watch many shows when they are aired. The commercials ruin the experience. So I wait and watch things when I can skip the ads. Turns out some of the programs have a "coming ahead" section before the commercials, then they refresh your memory when the show resumes. Actual program time is pretty short.

    Commercials are nothing new. I have been watching The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock on Netflix, the program is only about 20 minutes long. The rest is.......
  • Thunderchicken
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    I record most of the shows I watch. I find I can watch a two hour newscast in about an hour by skipping commercials and fluff pieces.
  • CanisCanemEdit
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    @Thunderchicken - Same here.

    I don't get to (want to) watch the evening news casts and radio is repedative and boring.

    I love that HULU and Netflilx though.
  • mimi57
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    That's the best News I've heard in awhile !!! It's about time. I rarely watch tv., but when
    I do , the last thing I want is to be blasted out of my Snuggie.. LOL
  • jessejaymes
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    There you have it. our government is going to step in and make it so we don't even have to lift a finger to hit the volume control on the remotes that we use so we don't have to get off the couch while we flip through 200 channels so we don't have to watch commercials in the first place. And the beat goes on. And on. And on. In the words of Thomas Jefferson. Every nation needs a revolution about every 50 years. We can start this one by horsewhipping and tarring and feathering every single politician and bureaucrat in Washington D.C. .
  • Dan_Tien
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    The technology is available that would automatically detect TV commercials and blank them out. The advertising industry successfully got the government to step in and ban it, so I don't feel sorry for them over this. I have also noticed that commercials have become increasingly timed to play at the same time on every channel, sometimes the very same commercial, which pretty much makes channel flipping useless.
  • stepped_in_it
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    OMG....Key, sometimes I think you got way to much free time on your hands (if you read that story).....besides, I think he only required castration....LOL
  • u
    CommonSense
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    What I would like is if the remotes came with 2 volume settings one for absolute volume and one for volume smoothness, turn up volume smoothness and the volume of the various speakers would change to move towards the average.
    The would be helpful whenever there's a commercial where they loudly talk about all the benefits and then mumble about the problems or when there's a movie I'm watching and one character is really loud and one is mumbling and I want to hear the mumbler but I don't want to break my ear drums listening to the other character.
  • u
    Chromalord
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    Last I checked, aside from pay stations, TV is an advertising medium. The shows are not their to serve the ads, its the other way around. Thing is, the volume varies so much from station-to-station, you will still end up having to change the volume anyway.
    The FCC has always controlled program level and advertisers ( rightfully so) could go as far as 6dB above program level. Some did, some did not. If I had to guess, this is all a ploy by the networks and their affiliates to lobby the FCC to bring this matter before congress. The networks are desperate to compete with pay-TV, and removing annoyances, no matter how small, is viewed as a way to elevate viewer-share. The higher the viewer share, the higher the ad-revenue.
  • Party-Cults
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    When I have to make a special trip to the living room just to lower the television because some car commercial is blasting then I say, "It's about time." The ban is way late, but appreciated nevertheless.
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