WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama signed the CALM Act into law this week, requiring broadcasters to throttle down the volume on excessively loud TV commercials.
The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act directs television broadcasters and advertisers to adopt technology that will modulate audio levels and prevent overly loud commercials. They have one year to do so. The Advanced Television Systems Committee in 2009 adopted best practices for broadcast commercial volume. These will become the standard by which the FCC will monitor compliance.
The text of the bill is available here.
