The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill (S. 2847) requiring that the FCC ban the decades-old practice by which broadcasters pump up the volume on ads so they are much, much louder than the programs they sponsor. It’s very attention-getting, which is the idea. It’s also extremely annoying, which isn’t.

The CALM Act (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) would require the FCC to enforce “internationally accepted standards of television advertisement volumes” within a year of becoming law. A version of the act had already passed in the House, where it will return for reconciliation with the Senate bill. Supporters hope for a final vote next month. It’s hard to image President Obama not signing it.

While this may have been a cause for national celebration in simpler times, the parade has largely moved on. We are now armed with the tools to ignore TV ads in the broadcast/cable/satellite realm — if ad aversion is your thing, do yourself a favor and buy a TiVo box, or at least rent your provider’s DVR. Many high-end entertainment systems already have the capacity to moderate volume on the fly. And perhaps more to the point, we are marching steadily (if still slowly) to a time-shifted, on-demand video universe where a) traditional programming is just a small slice of what you do with what you might still call your TV set and b) you don’t use a TV set at all to “watch TV.”

Still, it probably comes as a surprise to most that the FCC — which can fine a broadcaster hundreds of thousands of dollars if someone uses a curse word on the air that you hear 10 times a day or has a wardrobe malfunction you can’t actually see without a DVR — does not have the power to order stations it regulates to regulate ad volume, which affects everyone, every day.

They do have a web page on subject which gives a tutorial on the mute button, says “too loud” is a matter of opinion and urges people to contact individual stations to complain.

But the bill does not and can’t address how ads — volume or otherwise — are handled in the digital realm, and that’s where the real action will be. Even Hulu Plus, which charges $10 a month if you can get an invite, has ads. They are more limited, but guess what? You can’t bypass them, at all. While you can pause and scrub forward and back on programming, you are a captive audience to the ads. Also, they are (in this reporter’s anecdotal experience, at least) louder than the programming, just like on the TV.

And since streaming services are often used with earphones — well, you get the idea.

And since online services are not a broadcast medium, the FCC has no authority over them, meaning the future of commercials is going to likely sound just as loud as the past did.

Follow us for disruptive tech news: John C. Abell and Epicenter on Twitter.

See Also:

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• Google TV Revealed: One Screen to Rule Them All
• Boxee CEO: Google TV Could Boost or Crush Us
• Hulu’s Reported Subscription Plans Portend Cable Showdown …
• Hulu Plus Launches: Three Networks, Zero Real-Time Shows …
• Subscription Hulu: Beginning of the End for Cable, Satellite TV …

Authors: John C Abell

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