Whatever happened to that law where television broadcasters were not allowed to have the commercials louder than the primary station presentation?
That was another one that got totally ignored. On the occasion that I do watch a show that is not the news, I have to mute the TV during commercials (when on the rarer occasion that I can’t fast forward the recorded program)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) rules require commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany. In the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, Congress directed the FCC to establish these rules, which went into effect on December 13, 2012.Dec 11, 2015
That regulation is still in effect, but I once read how advertisers got around it. The calculation of a TV show’s “average volume” includes occasional gunshots, squealing tires, noisy crashes, etc., in addition to normal conversation and other quieter scenes. In other words, the average volume is higher because of the occasional very loud scene. Then the advertiser uses this average volume for their entire advertisement — which obviously doesn’t include occasional car crashes and gunshots — so it’s REALLY LOUD all the way through.
I didn’t know there was a law about that. I don’t watch much TV, but when I do, the loud commercials drive me nuts. They didn’t used to be that loud.