CALM Act Passes Senate


Watch those audio levels! The Senate has passed Senate Bill 2847 – The CALM Act, which directs the FCC to adopt rules regulating the loudness of TV commercials.

The requirements of the CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) Act are simple. The legislation states that within one year after the date of enactment, the FCC "shall prescribe pursuant to the Communications Act of 1934" a regulation that incorporates by reference and makes mandatory (subject to any waivers the FCC might grant) the "Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television' (A/85), and any successor thereto, approved by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. The bill states that it's applicable only "insofar as such recommended practice concerns the transmission of commercial advertisements by a television broadcast station, cable operator, or other multichannel video programming distributor…"

The Act includes a waiver provision allowing the FCC to waive the requirement for one year for any TV station, CATV operator or other video programming distributor demonstrating financial hardship in obtaining the necessary equipment for compliance. The FCC is also allowed to renew the waiver for a second year. The FCC's current authority to waive any rule required isn't affected by the Act.

It's important to note that stations, operators and distributors are able to comply with the rule by installing, utilizing and maintaining "in a commercially reasonable manner, the equipment and associated software in compliance with the regulations issued by the Federal Communications Commission…"

Stations should be relieved to see that the original language, which mandated that ads accompanying video programming "shall not be excessively noisy or strident," was not included in the Act when it passed.

Equipment to provide loudness monitoring and control is available from several companies.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.