US lawmakers target loud TV ads
With political ads swamping US airwaves ahead of November elections, the US Senate has passed a bill targeting overly loud television advertisements, its lead author said Thursday.
"Every American has likely experienced the frustration of abrasively loud television commercials," said Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who blamed blaring salespitches for "unnecessary stress" in viewers' lives.
The Senate passed the bill late Wednesday, and the House of Representatives approved its version in December 2009, setting the stage for lawmakers to forge a compromise that President Barack Obama could sign into law.
The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set new rules for how loud television advertisements can be.
The FCC has received consumer complaints of commercials louder than the programs they interrupt since the 1960s, and it is frequently the most-cited beef from viewers, but the agency has been largely skeptical.
In a June 2009 fact sheet posted on its Internet site, the FCC said loudness was subjective and that broadcasters and program producers had "considerable latitude."
"Manually controlling volume levels with the remote control remains the simplest approach to reducing excessive volume levels," it said. "The 'Mute' button on TV remote controls is also useful to 'blank' excessively loud audio."
Copyright 2010  AFP Global Edition
