CALM Act Passes in Senate Committee

The Senate Commerce Committee passed the CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) Act, which officially adopts the Advanced Television Systems Committee's recommended practices for variations in commercial volume in relation to the programs around them.

The bill passed June 9 by unanimous consent, which means there was no recorded vote. The bill, which passed the House in essentially the same form, directs the Federal Communications Commission to regulate commercial volume per the ATSC recommendations adopted last November. It gives cable operators and broadcasters a year from the law's adoption to comply. The Senate version has a few slight tweaks. One clarifies that the standards will be an FCC "mandate," not simply an incorporation of the ATSC guidelines. Another extends that mandate to any "successor" standard approved by ATSC. A third change deals with the language a wavier (up to two years beyond the effective date) for small cable operators or stations for whom adopting the regime, and the equipment necessary to regularize the volume, would be a financial hardship.