Eleven years ago, an influential Member of the House of Representatives crafted legislation passed into law by President Obama designed to eliminate those jarring commercial breaks where the audio is out of sync with the regular programming — and much louder in volume.
In recent months, however, jarring TV spots have reemerged at over-the-air and cable TV, leading this politician on April 14 to seek — for the second time — an FCC investigation into the matter.
The Commission has now agreed to do so.
On April 14, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) sent a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel specifically requesting the Commission investigate ” a reported increase in complaints related to loud television advertisements that may violate the CALM Act.”
The jump in complaints came concurrent to the COVID-19 pandemic, with more people sequestered in their homes and watching television. Thus, the loudness issue could have predated the arrival of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. It was the virus that likely exposed the problem to a greater degree.
Eshoo became aware of the problem. On July 21, 2020, she wrote to then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai requesting information about complaints related to and enforcement of the CALM Act.
The Pai Commission did not act.
On March 31, 2021, online publication Business Insider followed up on the complaints by offering a lengthy feature story that examined the four-month period from November 2020 to February 2021. In this timeframe, FCC complaints of loud commercials increased 140% compared to the same period a year ago — more than double the volume of complaints.
For TV broadcasters and cable operators, the CALM Act requires any station to abide by the A/85 standard approved by the ATSC, the Advanced Television Systems Committee. The FCC is the enforcement agency.
Eshoo was quoted in the Business Insider article, which makes the assumption that “2021 is poised to be the worst year since the initial rollout” of the CALM Act.
Fueled by the online report, Eshoo then pleaded to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “This worries me a great deal,” she wrote to Rosenworcel.
It appears the FCC under Democratic Party influence is worried, to. On Monday (4/19), the Media Bureau moved forward with the issuance of a public notice inviting comment from consumers and industry leaders on whether any updates are needed to the Commission’s rules implementing the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act.
Comments are due by June 3. Reply Comments are due by July 9.
“We seek comment on the extent to which our rules have been effective in preventing loud commercials,” the Media Bureau states. ‘In particular, we invite consumers to tell us their experiences as they watch programming provided by television broadcasters and MVPDs.”
In response, Eshoo said, “I welcome the FCC’s action to protect consumers from the vexing issue of loud TV ads. I authored the law to put an end to this national irritant, but complaints are rising again. I welcome the decision of the FCC to hear complaints from the American people. I urge everyone who is annoyed to submit their complaints to the FCC about loud ads to ensure violations of the CALM Act can be investigated.”
