|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
For decades, loud TV commercials have been among the leading complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, says Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto.
A bill she drafted and that passed the House of Representatives Tuesday (Dec. 15) aims to do something about it.
The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, would bar TV ads from playing noticeably louder than programs running at the same time. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.
“This problem has existed for more than 50 years, but no one has properly addressed it,” Eshoo said in a statement. “Under the CALM Act, consumers will no longer have to dive for the mute button.”
By Almanac staff
Can’t she spend her time on more important issues ?? This is a joke.
@Henderson LaGuardia – I was going to add the same comment.
Yes loud ads are an inconvenience, but there are more important issues to deal with.
I agree that there are other important issues to address, but I’m still grateful this is finally being addressed!
Yes, there are more important issues, most of them being blocked by the party of No.
Glad to see Anna can handle multiple items at a time, something the posters above seem unable to grasp.
Granted, it probably won’t go anywhere, but if you ever watch TV with someone who doesn’t have Tivo (like my 80 yr old mom,) then you hear this complaint every night.
Fix it, Ms. Eshoo.
Another landmark achievement for Eschoo. We are so proud of her! Future United States President!!
Such bitter little people.
How you prefer the do-nothing Congess’ of 2002 & 2004!!
Well, “do nothing” except a couple new Vietnams, allowing torture (something our fathers fought against in WWII!) and doubling the national debt.
And failing to regulate Wall Street. And the explosion in earmarks.
But other than that, just stellar examples of productivity.
This bill will make no difference. Studies have shown that commercials are not louder than programs. They simply have a much narrower range that is skewed towards the louder end. Programs have silent moments, and loud moments. What’s more, they tend to end segments with silence, or low sound. This causes a big perceived jump when a the commercial starts at a much louder level. Drafting effective regulations is going to be almost impossible.
A lot of people seem to react, “Why not spend time on something more important.” Actually, as it turns out, this is extremely important. Believe it or not, the RF Spectrum (AKA “the airwaves”) are a scarce public resource — the property of YOU and ME, John and Jane Q. Public. The broadcasters don’t like to admit this, and the Bush administration did everything it could to give away public control of the RF spectrum. This bill is actually a nice reminder to the broadcasters that they do not own the spectrum being broadcast through your house and my house.
JFP raises an interesting point, although, whatever the broadcasters skewed statistics say, they do deliberate broadcast many ads on average louder than programs. But, technically speaking, the fix used to be very difficult, because the “loudness” techniques that admakers use are a little more subtle than just turning up the gain.
Luckily, technology can come to the rescue here, and there are consistent engineering ways to define “loudness” such that it can be measured consistently, as well as techniques to equalize volume, and, techniques to limit sudden changes in volume. There are simple engineering solutions to all of the associated issues. The only real question is whether or not the broadcast lobby is forced answer to the public or not over their use of the public RF spectrum.
God Bless her. I live in hotels and I’m a considerate guest. Don’t you hate it when I wake you while watching the weather channel ’cause an advert came. Me to.
Scott
Maybe it’s a kind of “Guilliani comes to New York” kind of thing. Instead of targeting spray painting and subway toll crashers, now we just need to reign in the corporations by busting their chops over all the nefarious little stuff they do. Maybe they’ll eventually learn to sit and beg, heel, roll over and at least play dead once in a while.
Plus little victories, ones which elicit some relief of daily and chronic annoyances, can build support. If Eshoo can make it a felony for those automated carpet cleaner telemarketers I’d donate to her and worship the very ground she walks on.
Or maybe this is all probably a big Democratic plot. Since the Republicans by reflex are opposed to anything and everything President Obama and the democrats propose….all they have to do is draft legislation supporting the flag, mom, and apple pie to watch the pus-hback. Then use to their advantage.
President Obama says “Kids should brush their teeth” and suddenly Glen Beck and Rush are saying cavities are the American Way.
Senator Al Franken had a bill to support women who seek justice after being raped and that was opposed by the Republicans.
I suspect this bill was an attempt to further ambush the Republicans.
I think this is great.
I listen to KGO a lot while driving and they have enough ads and junk as it is, but one thing that really gets me is that I’ll be listening and they will shift the audio to some commercial or intro for the next program and it about knocks me out of my seat.
Then .. there are the times when one wants to watch TV maybe late at night, and keep the volume down so as not to wake someone else, in the next room or the same bed … and you can be watching and the commercial shifts and you have to hit the mute or volume button or you disturb other people.
There is really no excuse, and we have gotten so used to buisness, and rotten cheating trickery kind of business people running our lives some people do not even get it.
I think this is one of a few things that is really nice … now, you know thought that they will just try their best to figure out loopholes and defeat what is a reasonable request, to be able to watch TV without it disturbing people.
Why does Congress need to get involved in regulating broadcast and cable? This is what the FCC is for.
Talk about a waste of time.
Fixtures & Faucets, the gauntlet has been thrown!
This is why we need to cut our legislature to 1/2 time.
Passing 1,000 bills as silly as this per year is an absurd waste of our tax money and a constant assault on the intelligence and freedom of the American people ( who live in California, anyway).
Gosh..I guess I am simply too stupid to hit the remote control when a commercial comes on that is too loud, and the PRIVATE companies are too stupid to figure out what sells and what doesn’t?
Gotta tell everyone what to do!! That is Eshoo’s job!
Don’t you all ever get tired of being treated like idiots?
While I must admit that the heightened volume of tv comercials is
slightly annoying, I would expect that this is not the type of issue
that are representatives are grappling with for the betterment of
our society, and that we actually have much more important issues to deal with, so many in fact that I’d rather not even begin to list them. Is this really the type of work that we want are constituents working on during these perilous times?
Big Al and others,
It turns out that Anna Eshoo is capable of working on more than one thing at a time! This bill did not come at the expense of more important issues. Read the editorial in the 12/18 Palo Alto Weekly to find out about some other things she has been doing.
It also turns out that this TV volume bill is one of the most popular ones in her career! She has been waiting for someone to take care of this issue by other means, but finally decided she needed to act. Here is a quote from the Oakland Tribune
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_14006254?source=rss
Eshoo said she’s gotten more feedback on the bill, HR 1084, than on anything she’s worked on in two decades in Congress, with the possible exception of a measure to crack down on telemarketing.
“I have never suggested that this solves the great challenges that face our country,” Eshoo said on the House floor. But it does address a legitimate and widespread gripe, she added.
“It is something that’s been left unattended to for a half-century,” she said.
Donald, that is precisely the problem with most elected officials in this State and Nation: “working on more than one thing at a time” always translates into working to control us yet more.
She may have gotten more feedback on this bill because it is silly.
It has been left unattended to for half-century because it is a silly issue…
whatever. you get the government you elect. whatever…
have fun with the ever increasing infantilization of this State and our Country.
in the meantime, I think I will go try to figure out how to hit the mute button on my remote or turn down the radio when I am driving..