No More Loud TV Commercials: CALM Law Takes Effect

COMMENTS (25)

• THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

  Comment by Frank — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 12:59pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Quit screaming!! I have to turn down the volume

    Comment by disgruntled viewer — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 3:10pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Unfortunately, the Broadcasters are ignoring this. I phoned in a complaint to the FCC and they sent me a letter telling me that I didn’t provide all the needed information(my state being among the information they say was missing.) If this were the case, how did their letter get to me. Additionally, the information for the complaint was taken by a FCC employee. If any infomation was missing it was due to the employee not asking the question or not writing down the info. Now the commercial volumes are back to prelaw levels, if not louder. Just another example of how companies now run this country.

    Comment by Sorthious — Tuesday March 5, 2013 @ 7:39am PST  Reply to this post

• Well,it’s about time! These idiots seem to think screaming loudly makes people wanna buy their products. It’s like the commercials are three,four,or,five times as loud as the actual program you’re watching. With dvrs,most people don’t watch the ads anyway,but,if you’re watching anything live-the commercials are TOO DAMN LOUD.

  Comment by Tone it down. — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 1:08pm PST  Reply to this post

• I hope this works – I routinely turn down the volume when commercials start.

  Comment by Sorry — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 1:09pm PST  Reply to this post

• Why not radio too?

  Comment by Dan — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 1:24pm PST  Reply to this post

• Yay!

  Comment by XYZ — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 1:50pm PST  Reply to this post

• I consider myself a libertarian, but I have to admit…YES!

  Comment by Stamos — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 2:31pm PST  Reply to this post

• Great news! Anyone know if this applies to the loop of promotional messages that airs on the On Demand channels? I’m on Time Warner and when I go to the On Demand channels, those promos are so much louder (obnoxiously so). So after watching an On Demand show or movie, I’m startled when the messages come back on.

  Comment by George — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 2:58pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Didn’t the above article say beginning today?

    Comment by HS — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 4:54pm PST  Reply to this post

• I thought I noticed this with DirecTV a month or two ago so maybe they had already implemented this. My commericals have seemed noticably lower than the programs. Yay!

  Comment by tvlover — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 3:09pm PST  Reply to this post

• does it start at the end of today because ESPN is still CRANKING UP THE COMMERCIALS.

  Comment by Deg — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 3:13pm PST  Reply to this post

• You guys still watch commercials?

  Comment by Fred — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 3:16pm PST  Reply to this post

• Good first step. Now, if they can only address all the logos, crawlers, and advertisements popping up on the screen when the programs are actually on…

  Comment by Jamesb3 — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 3:36pm PST  Reply to this post

  • DITTO!! MOST ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!! Some day this will backfire – I’ve decided NOT to watch some of the introduced shows that pop up just because all that crap interrupts what I’m looking at. How many other things are our minds going to be forced to block out?

    Comment by HS — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 5:01pm PST  Reply to this post

• WHAT DID YOU SAY? “I CAN’T HEAR YOU… ‘CAUSE DAMAGE’S ALREADY DONE!” thanks anyway

  Comment by HS — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 4:51pm PST  Reply to this post

• Sorry to get all technical, but I’m curious how they’ll actually regulate/implement this as commercials are rarely “louder” in how the audio “peaks” the vu meters but because the sound is more compressed – which only makes them seem louder than the surrounding programming.

  Comment by Wonk — Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 4:58pm PST  Reply to this post

  • I believe this is what the law was intended to address, using more accurate ways of measuring loudness that take much more than peak/VU into account.

    Comment by adam — Friday December 14, 2012 @ 10:08am PST  Reply to this post

• Then your obviously not a libertarian…. It’s a federal law. Where in the hell gives CONGRESS the power to do this?

  Comment by Chaz — Friday December 14, 2012 @ 4:15am PST  Reply to this post

• Does anyone realize the tolerance built in to the law is 2db?? The db scale is logrithmic; 3db doubles the signal strenght, hence 2db is only slightly less! HAVE YOU REALLY NOTICED A DIFFERENCE or, did Congress and their Lobbyists do it to us again??

  Comment by Ron — Sunday December 23, 2012 @ 8:51am PST  Reply to this post

• I think someone is kidding themselves, nothing has changed except a lot of the news programs, and other programs come on with a lot louder noise.

  Comment by Fred Fleshman — Friday January 4, 2013 @ 5:02pm PST  Reply to this post

• Well that law doesn’t work. I watched CBS all night and constantly had to turn or mute the tv to protect my ear drums from bursting.

  Comment by CHARLES FLECK — Thursday February 14, 2013 @ 7:43pm PST  Reply to this post

• Dish didn’t get the memo.

  Comment by Nancy — Wednesday February 27, 2013 @ 9:19pm PST  Reply to this post

• The commercials are still TOO LOUD.That law did not do CRAP.

  Comment by MICHAEL SISAK — Tuesday March 12, 2013 @ 5:50pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Damn liars this is a bunch of bs with lowering the volume with commercials it never happened it is 2013 and its still the same! Damn GEICO and Viagra crap disgusting shit that I never saw in my days even in my youth etc etc

  Comment by Chris — Saturday April 13, 2013 @ 8:36pm PDT  Reply to this post