Calm Act: Lawmaking Process And Implementation

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM Act) was passed into law in 2010 in response to consumer complaints about loud commercials. The CALM Act requires the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bar the audio of TV commercials from being broadcast louder than the TV program material they accompany.

The CALM Act was first introduced as a bill in the House of Representatives by Representative Anna Eshoo, who was motivated to write the bill after a loud commercial interrupted a conversation at a family dinner. The bill was the United States Senate companion to proposed legislation in the House of Representatives. The final bill was passed on September 29, 2010, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 15, 2010.

The CALM Act requires the FCC to establish rules that require TV stations, cable operators, satellite TV providers, or other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) to apply the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) A/85 Recommended Practice (ATSC A/85 RP) to commercial advertisements they transmit to viewers. The rules took effect on December 13, 2012, and television viewers are asked to report loud commercials that violate this bill to the FCC.

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM Act) was passed into law in 2010

The CALM Act requires the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to prevent television commercials from being broadcast louder than the TV programs they accompany. Specifically, the act directs the FCC to implement the "Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television" issued by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. This involves requiring all "multichannel video programming" distributors, including cable system operators, to adhere to certain technical standards for measuring and controlling audio loudness.

The CALM Act was well-received by the public, with Representative Eshoo stating that it was one of the most popular pieces of legislation she had sponsored during her time in Congress. However, there have been challenges with enforcement, and consumer complaints about loud commercials have continued to rise in recent years. In response, two members of Congress reintroduced a bill in 2023, called the CALM Modernization Act, which aims to strengthen the FCC's enforcement powers and expand the scope of the CALM Act to include streaming services.

The CALM Act requires the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bar the audio of TV commercials from being broadcast louder than the TV program material they accompany

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act was passed into law in 2010 to address the issue of loud commercials on television. The CALM Act requires the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce rules that bar the audio of TV commercials from being broadcast louder than the TV program material they accompany.

The CALM Act was passed in response to consumer complaints about loud commercials, with the issue being one of the most common sources of complaints to the FCC since the inception of commercial television. The Act was sponsored by Representative Anna Eshoo, who was motivated to address the issue after a loud commercial interrupted a conversation at a family dinner.

The CALM Act requires that the audio of TV commercials be no louder than the programming before or after it. To achieve this, the FCC has adopted the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) "Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television" as the standard for measuring and controlling the audio loudness of digital programming, including commercials. This standard is used by broadcast television stations and pay TV providers.

The ATSC standard specifies that the dialog element level of a program be measured with the ITU-R BS.1770 algorithm, expressed in LKFS (Loudness, K-weighted, relative to Full Scale), and maintained at -24 LKFS, +/- 2 dB, over the course of the program. The true peak of the final mix output must not exceed -2 dBFS, and there is also a short-term interval LKFS measurement (every three seconds) that allows for additional dB over the +/- 2 dB variation of the -24 LKFS standard for short intervals.

Broadcasters may require variations to these specifications, such as a +/- 1 dB variation on the infinite measure instead of +/- 2 dB. Additionally, some broadcasters still require the old standard of a -10 dBFS output limit, which restricts the dynamic range of television programming.

The FCC began enforcing the CALM Act on December 13, 2012, after a one-year grace period. While the Act initially did not cover streaming services, a new bill has been introduced to amend the CALM Act to extend its regulations to streaming services.

The CALM Act was a response to consumer complaints about loud commercials

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act was passed in response to consumer complaints about loud commercials. The CALM Act requires the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bar the audio of TV commercials from being broadcast louder than the TV program material they accompany.

The CALM Act was introduced by Representative Anna Eshoo, who was motivated to write the bill after a loud commercial interrupted a conversation at a family dinner. When Eshoo asked her brother-in-law to "do something" about the loud television, he replied, "Well, you're the congresswoman. Why don't you do something about it?".

The CALM Act was passed unanimously by the United States Senate on September 30, 2010, and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 15, 2010.

The Act directs the FCC to establish rules that require TV stations, cable operators, satellite TV providers, and other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) to apply the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) A/85 Recommended Practice ("ATSC A/85 RP") to commercial advertisements they transmit to viewers. The ATSC A/85 RP is a set of methods to measure and control the audio loudness of digital programming, including commercials.

The FCC's rules implementing the CALM Act went into effect on December 13, 2012. Television viewers are asked to report loud commercials that violate this bill to the FCC.

The CALM Act directs the FCC to establish rules that require TV stations, cable operators, satellite TV providers or other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) to apply the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) A/85 Recommended Practice (ATSC A/85 RP) to commercial advertisements they transmit to viewers

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act, was passed on September 29, 2010, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 15, 2010. The Act requires the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bar the audio of TV commercials from being broadcast louder than the TV program material they accompany.

The CALM Act directs the FCC to establish rules that require TV stations, cable operators, satellite TV providers, or other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) to apply the Advanced Television Systems Committees' (ATSC) A/85 Recommended Practice (ATSC A/85 RP) to commercial advertisements they transmit to viewers. The ATSC A/85 RP is a set of methods to measure and control the audio loudness of digital programming, including commercials. This standard can be used by all broadcast television stations and pay TV providers.

The FCC's rules, which took effect on December 13, 2012, require commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany. The rules became effective one year after the date of their adoption, giving broadcast television stations and pay TV providers a year to be in full compliance.

The CALM Act was originally passed in 2010, but at the time, the FCC didn't have jurisdiction over streaming services. A new bill introduced in 2023 aims to ensure the FCC enforces the law and covers both TV and streaming services.

The CALM Act does not address loudness differences between programs or channels on a given station or MVPD

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act was passed in 2010 and came into effect on December 13, 2012. The CALM Act was enacted to address the issue of television commercials being significantly louder than the surrounding programming, which often prompted viewers to adjust the volume on their TVs. The law holds broadcasters responsible for ensuring volume consistency across all program components.

The CALM Act directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish rules that require TV stations, cable operators, satellite TV providers, or other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) to apply the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) A/85 Recommended Practice ("ATSC A/85 RP") to commercial advertisements. The ATSC A/85 RP outlines a set of methods to measure and control the audio loudness of digital programming, including commercials.

While the CALM Act effectively addresses loudness differences between commercials and the programs they accompany, it does not address loudness differences between programs or channels on a given station or MVPD. This means that the CALM Act's scope is limited to mitigating the volume of commercials relative to the programming they accompany, rather than addressing overall loudness differences between different programs or channels.

The focus of the CALM Act on commercial loudness can be attributed to the specific intent of the legislation, which was to address the annoyance caused by viewers constantly adjusting their TV volume due to louder commercials. Additionally, the technical requirements for measuring loudness in the CALM Act were adopted from the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) "recommended practice", which specifically addressed techniques for establishing and maintaining audio loudness for digital television.

It is important to note that the CALM Act only applies to commercials aired on television and does not include radio commercials or commercials aired on the internet or streaming services. The exclusion of streaming services from the CALM Act has been recognized as an issue, and there are ongoing efforts to amend the legislation to extend its scope to include streaming platforms.

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