FCC Updates CALM Act To Further Quiet Commercials

The Federal Communications Commission has approved a technical change in the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM Act) that it says could further reduce the volume of TV commercials.

It has given stakeholders a year to comply with the new standard, as the National Association of Broadcasters had requested. The Act requires broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to monitor and control the volume of commercials to make sure they are not louder than the surrounding programming.

The FCC received more than 20,000 complaints about loud commercials in the year since the FCC began enforcing the CALM Act in December 2012, but the good news was that the complaints have been on a steep downward curve, from 4,777 in December 2012 to 656.

Larger operators must conduct annual spot-checking of commercials for the first two years, after which that requirement sunsets. Smaller operators and stations don't have to spot check, but stations and operators of all sizes must test in response to a "pattern or trend" of complaints -- rather than, say, a single complaint -- involving their station or system.