Bill would turn the volume down on TV commercials

I'm not that partial to lawmakers meddling with the media, but when it comes to muzzling TV ads that are double the volume of the shows they're sponsoring, I'll make an exception.

Broadcasting & Cable reports that Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) has proposed a bill—the aptly named Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM—that would hold the FCC responsible for ensuring that TV commercials "not be excessively noisy."

More precisely, the bill would mandate that the FCC "prescribe a standard to preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program material they accompany."

Indeed, loud TV ads are so pervasive that several technologies have cropped up to combat the problem, such as Dolby Volume (which Chris covered last year). The only problem, however, is that these features typically limit the overall dynamic range of the sound, making the whispers too loud and the explosions too soft.

Now, usually I'm suspicious when legislators start circling the media, hoping to score political points by censoring violent movies, video games, or raunchy music lyrics.

But a law regulating noisy TV commercials—the ones that are so loud that you jump for the remote to turn the volume down—well, that's a cause I could get behind.

Related:
Eshoo Calls for CALM in TV Commercials [Broadcast & Cable]