Senate votes to turn down volume on TV commercials

[defendandprotect]

Senate votes to turn down volume on TV commercials

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer – 32 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Legislation to turn down the volume on those loud TV commercials that send couch potatoes diving for their remote controls looks like it'll soon become law.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill late Wednesday to require television stations and cable companies to limit the volume of commercials and keep them at the level of the programs they interrupt.

The House has passed similar legislation. Before it can become law, minor differences between the two versions have to be worked out when Congress returns to Washington after the Nov. 2 election.

Ever since television caught on in the 1950s, the Federal Communication Commission has been getting complaints about blaring commercials. But the FCC concluded in 1984 there was no fair way to write regulations controlling the "apparent loudness" of commercials. So it hasn't been regulating them.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100930/ap_on_en_ot/us_congress_loud_commercials


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Reagan also DOUBLED the length of ads on TV -- and why are we both PAYING for cable service

and still seeing ads??



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[Newsjock]

1. Love ya, Senate

But is this the strongest stuff y'all can agree on anymore?

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, defendandprotect.

[the redcoat]

3. Any audio engineer knows

how to get around this. You don't need to have commercials louder than programs, you can have them at the same volume but raise the compression levels.

What this means is that all sound will be equal to the highest volume on the tv show. Commercials, then, will sound louder, but will be legally within their rights. I doubt there will be a huge difference.

[Evasporque]

4. holy crap me am gonna vote now!!!

YEEEE HAAAWWW! I luv GIVMINT!

[kentuck]

5. IT'S MY MONEY AND I WANT IT NOW !!!!

That commercial??

[pipi_k]

30. Oh god, that's one of the ones I absolutely detest!!! n/t

[COLGATE4]

6. Thank God. Thank you, Senate. These screaming commercials

drive me up a damned wall!

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Congress has wised me up a lot.

I will wait to see if the bill ever gets passed.
I will wait to see what else they put IN the bill that we don't know about.
So far, all remains "talk".

And 2 years down the road before it takes effect, if adopted as Whitehouse wrote it.

"The legislation, sponsored by Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., requires the FCC to adopt those recommendations as regulations within a year and begin enforcing them a year later."

[littlewolf]

8. Thank you both houses for this ...

[Buns_of_Fire]

9. Well, they apparently found something they can agree on.

And these people get paid HOW much again?

[Greyskye]

10. For some reason I had thought it was already illegal, but not enforced.

I've been pissed for the wrong reason for decades.

Since the advent of DVR, I've hardly ever seen/heard a commercial. I probably wouldn't loathe them as much as I do if it wasn't for the damn gain boost.

I venture to guess, however, that advertisers will make sure that in every show there is one, short duration high db noise. That way they can run their ads at the same level. Evil bastards. :evilfrown:

[Posteritatis]

17. Subliminal ads are illegal; superliminal ones seemed more encouraged than anything. (nt)

[Chipper Chat]

11. Take that Brighthouse!

Their commercials (especially their OWN commercials for Brighthouse) are so loud and annoying both in volume and content. The worst is AMC channel. You have to turn the volume way up to hear the movie;then when a commercial comes on it is so loud my neighbors can hear it.

[Touchdown]

12. Well, as long as their addressing the important things.

:eyes:

[emilyg]

14. Right - budget anyone?

[Bryn]

13. I get disgusted with too many "paid commercial programs" on cable

especially since we're paying for cable too much $$$. I am thinking about cutting out cable except for the internet.

[defendandprotect]

19. Everything that might present some truth is a danger to right wing ... only selling stuff works

for them!!

Why produce programming when you can just sell the time and rake in money????

Comcast takeover of NBC is frightening -- especially cause they make $500 million

a year on internet porn!!

Worried about MSNBC programs -- Olberman, Schultz, Maddow --

[Occulus]

21. If you have Netflix, you may be able to do exactly that.

I have the Netflix $9.99/month plan, and their "watch instantly" feature goes a long, long way toward making cable TV completely unnecessary. Of course, you need broadband internet to make it work, but even then....

I don't know why I didn't subscribe a long time ago. It's just a really amazing service all the way around.

[Bryn]

29. First I will cut down cable to basic basic service

then start the Netflix plan. Sounds like much cheaper and no commercials, too. If Mom wasn't here I would cut out the TV cable completely, but I am her caretaker and she has dementia. She enjoys watching TV in her room.

[defendandprotect]

38. You mean watching movies via the internet ....

I'm a little slow on technology ... what qualifies as "broadband internet"????

Understand you have to download the movies, right?

[HopeHoops]

15. "K-TELL RECORDS BREAKS ITS OWN RECORD!"

Those fucking commercials would always come on at like 2:30 in the morning in the middle of a very quiet horror film that required having the volume cranked up. DAMN I hated those commercials - and they were stupid anyway - a damn hammer smashing a record on a turntable while the announcer barfed into a microphone. AAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

On the plus side, it made the horror films seem a LOT less creepy.

[onenote]

16. mostly window dressing

As pointed out upthread, its unlikely that the impact of this change in the law will be all that noticeable.

Also, for what its worth, I don't recall the FCC limiting the length of ads on TV (except for ads on childrens' programming). I'd be interested in a link. What I do recall is that the National Association of Broadcasters had a "voluntary" code of standards that imposed limits on ad time. In 1982, Judge Harold Greene agreed with Justice Department that the code violated the antitrust law and NAB dropped the code opening the door for broadcasters to do what they want regarding advertising.

Finally, you still pay for cable television and see ads for the same reason you still pay for a newspaper and see ads. Or see ads when you pay to go the movies. Or see ads when you pay to go to sporting event.

[Obamanaut]

18. Thank goodness they are doing something for the good of the country,

and not one day too soon.

[Initech]

20. Jobs? Nope. Deficit? Nope. Ending the war? Nope. Repealing DADT ? Nope.

But holy shit - those god damned loud commercials are an issue that affects every man woman and child!!!! We must end this evil immediately!

[Incitatus]

24. enjoy your crumb

And don't ask for anything else for another 6 months

:sarcasm:

[pipi_k]

32. You're absolutely right...there are more pressing issues, but...

I'm still real happy to see that we're not going to be subjected to daily assaults from TV commercials that are 10 or 20 (or more) decibels louder than the program they're interrupting.

I don't know about anyone else here, but speaking as someone who suffers from anxiety disorders, the sudden onslaught of sound overload can trigger some really bad stuff.

:(

[Initech]

33. Thanks to DVR and DVD TV shows I havent seen a commercial in years.

[Mimosa]

22. I remember cable before the ads

Now I watch mainly movies, especially TCM!

[Lyric]

23. Why are we paying for cable but still seeing ads? There's a simple answer to that.

Because we're willing to pay for the privilege of watching commercials if it means that we also get to watch an occasional snippet of "Grey's Anatomy" or "Jersey Shore". Trying to organize a boycott would be useless, because you probably couldn't find more than a fraction of a percent of cable customers who'd be willing to cancel their service until the ads were removed (or at least drastically reduced). People really are THAT addicted to TV.

Frankly, I think that cable television is going to be a dead technology before the end of my lifetime. The internet will replace it, because there are fewer commercials, less frustration, and MUCH more convenience in terms of viewing times.

[Jamastiene]

27. Unfortunately,

I think we will start getting more commercials on the internet too. They are going to get their precious $ one way or another. I think you are right about cable television becoming a dead technology though.

I just think they will drag the ads over to the internet and inundate us here. I hope not, but I know how they operate. They will combine the idea of charging us by the megabyte with adding way too many ads (to be sure we rack up the megabytes we download) and we'll still be paying through the teeth for very little actual programming. I wish I was wrong.

[defendandprotect]

39. Agree with you ... though I do think that disgusted cable subscribers might

rise up at some point soon --

Remember the concept of competition bringing down prices???!!!

Coincidentally, Comcast which we got rid of and Verizon basically charge the same

rates -- almost to the penny!!

:evilgrin:

[Jamastiene]

25. Fuckin' A!!!!

I'm sick and tired of commercials that drill into my head and make me feel like I am being verbally assaulted by some jackass I do not even know. If I can get to the remote control fast enough, I can stop it, but sometimes I am busy doing house chores and cannot get to the remote in time. The other day, I just accepted that I would have to clean the flour off the remote after dinner. That commercial was WAY too loud.

My aunt said it best the other day...to a Billy Mays commercial:
"Didn't you die? Looks like you'd shut up and get off my TV now. Can't even get rid of your loud ass after you are dead. Dammit, I've got a headache now."

That sums it up for me.

[Jamastiene]

26. Re: paying for cable service and still seeing ads...

Don't forget to include the fact that they charge air time for those ads and infomercials. That means we are paying them. PLUS, the ones who air their ads are paying them, and we are paying them to see ads, which means they are getting paid DOUBLE for the ads.

On top of that, they show ads in 30 minute to one hour time slots pretty much all night long, which means we are paying for LONG ads as part of our cable service. For many of us, over half of what they have on is commercials, when you account for the many hours on nights, early mornings, and weekends where there is nothing else on but infomercials. They are raking in the cash every which way.

Btw, damn the asshole who invented the infomercial. I'd like to find out who was behind that crap so I can direct my anger appropriately.

[defendandprotect]

36. Exactly ... and Congress isn't after any of that--!! PLUS cable companies keep removing

any movie channels without commercials --

COMCAST is taking over NBC -- Comcast makes $500 million a year in internet porn!!

Comcast also does everything it can to keep C-span channels from "lower tier" subscribers!!

[archiemo]

28. So very proud of the men/women we've elected to do the work of the people!!

[Freddie Stubbs]

31. It's great that they have finished all of the important issues so they have time for the small stuff

[muffin1]

34. I'm sure

we'll see an addition to the "List of Accomplishments" any minute now. Good times.

[LeftinOH]

35. No Universal Health Care, no quality mass trasit, no education reform

but we get this. Thanks for nothing- seriously.

[begin_within]

37. Well, Bush signed the Do Not Call Registry into Law, so

We should at least get some kind of souvenir from Obama.