Television Broadcasters Have to Tone Down Loud Ads

Well at least something is being done. I hate getting blasted by those commercials. Whoever thought cranking the volume to ear bleed level was going to sell products was an idiot.

about time....so why do they have until 2014?...can't the companies making the ad just bring down the volume after it has been edited?

Wasn't this done back in the '90s? Or is this further reducing the volume? I guess I dont really care as I have not watched TV for some 7 years now, and dont miss it at all.
Not saying I dont watch shows, but a few $ for hulu or Netflix vs a small mint for cable. Cable has commercials, while netflix and subscribed hulu do not. Not much though has to go into that conclusion!

This is good. I hate every time I fall asleep with the TV on only to be woken up by a stupidly loud commercial.

When I watch Comedy Central on my current TV, I have to turn the volume up to 20 to hear the show, then turn it down to 8 to keep from getting overwhelmed by the commercials. It's totally bogus. Other channels aren't so bad, though. This is the very reason I avoid Comedy Central these days. SyFy is almost as bad, with TV shows needing to be up to 18 and commercials down to 12.

So many ad companies are run by absolutely stupid people: "We can't get them to watch our commercials by quality, let's force them to hear them from the other room!" If they'd just put some effort into doing their job right, they wouldn't have to resort to cheap tricks like raising the volume. I've written several letters to networks stating their commercials are annoying, including CC and SyFy, but it never made a difference.

I'm glad the government is doing this. The advertisers or networks sure aren't.

Probably the only thing that Obama has done that I agree with.

How do you Americans and Europeans manage it? I mean make such cool acronyms? Seriously, there's this law with a really big name, and it just becomes a acronym that happens to be a normal word as well. Freaky...but cool...It's almost as if they find think of a word then expand it.
I remember reading a lot of cool sounding acronyms from the military and NASA and ESA...we can't really manage it here...

I haven't watched many commercials at all recently, since the advent of the DVR.

ITS MY MONEY AND I NEED IT NOW

Worst offender of all time for this would be JG Wentworth (not sure where this shows but at least in the upper midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin) this commercial will wake the dead if heaven forbid you leave your TV on at night!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0fIi3H-es

I hope TV stations are innovating different ways to earn revenue, because I can see this commercial break thing being a completely outmoded income stream in just a few more years.

I don't mind clever and subtle product placement, but it's painful when it's obvious or intrusive to the show.

I bet they're thinking about banner ads during the actual show à la many free Android apps. I would HATE that.

The problem is that ad makers will still use the maximum volume level allowed and their ads will still sound a lot louder then the programming they appear with.

For example, a movie usually has quite a large volume range between its quiet scenes and its loudest (dynamic range - sort of). Just imagine a western with mostly just open vistas and talking, but interspersed with loud gunfights etc.
Ad makers will pitch their ads at the volume of the gunfights for the entirety of the ad, not the dialogue driven scenes, so the ads will STILL be a lot louder then the vast majority of the movie but the ad maker can claim that their content is no louder then the movie.

Its the same as we now see in todays music, with it all being compressed to hell so it sounds louder to the uninformed public that still idiotically thinks that loudness=quality.
Just go to youtube and do a search for 'the loudness war' and read the Rolling Stone story of the same name and you'll see what I mean.

I produce TV commercials, and every AD agency has submission requirements for audio/video. Most are standard. When i preview the exported version it sounds fine. Not to loud. But i have gotten emails that my commercial is too loud on some networks. So im not sure who is cranking up the audio. Could it be the agency or the network? There is an approval process for every spot, so it should be controlled. Either way im glad there putting more effort to control this.

You don't actually use Hulu Plus or you would know that you still have to deal with commercials even if you pay.

Yup. This time for sure. About once every 5 years, for the last 50 years, this is 'going to be fixed' Don't hold your breath. (Do hold your ears)

My wife and I cannot stand the loud ads. Then I have to listen to my wife complain which makes it worse.

Bring back Sally Struthers!

So you don't agree with:
- Ending the Iraq War
- Killing Osama Bin Laden
- Payroll tax cuts
- Extending the Bush tax cuts
- Fully funding the VA
- Banning lobbyist gifts to executive employees
- Doubling federal research money for developing alternative fuels
- Reversing the ban on stem cell research

(there are hundreds more)

Sounds like someone has been drinking a little too much Fox News kool-aid or just doesn't have the common sense to think for themselves.

Iraq war was already far drawn down
The CIA, funded and overseen by the Bush admin killed Osama, not Obama.
I haven't noticed a difference. Go figure? I've also heard unemployment is still increasing?
He didn't extend them, he swapped them with his own, but increasing them in other areas.
False.
But notably didn't ban lobbyist gifts to campaign resources.
Also giving trillions of dollars away to stagnant corporate structures and ungrateful countries, without taking a stand on improvement on anything
And I don't even agree with that. *eye-roll*

There aren't hundreds more. In fact, there are very few things that Obama has actually 'done', rather than just thought about or talked about. His list of Topics is epic. His list of accomplishments is nearly non-existent. No one seriously watches fox news. They're just like other news agencies. They have an agenda, and they'll sure as hell push it. But it does sound like you've been watching a bit too much "news" yourself.

Don't just think for yourself. Actually learn about the topics you're going to bullet, instead of attributing their accomplishment on a man who had nothing to do with them.

Is that really the best you can do?

I pay $200 a month for cable from optimum. I would like to see 2 things done to increase the overall quality of the cable service.

First correct the aspect ratios and resolutions. I hate seeing a 4:3 comercial or show stretched, just leave it with the black bars on the sides. Even worse I hate when a 720 show gets transmited at 1080 with black bars on all 4 sides. That is just stupid, it makes my 46 only have like 36 viewable. I know the cable box has a scaling function but I have to turn it on and off manually because some times when left on auto it zooms in on 1080 shows.

Second why not just level all audio. There should be a set minimum of what the softest sound can be and a set maximum of what the loudest sound can be. I hate commercials that are so loud I have to turn down the volume, but action movies in which the dialoge is so soft I cant hear it so I have to turn it up but the the car explodes and its so loud it cracks a window. Again the cable box has some options to control he range but they don’t work right. Anything other than auto makes it sound muffled.

I called the cable company and was told that they have no control over any of the picture quality or audio levels because they “don’t make the films they just transmit them”.

Bell TV commercials are really loud on CNBC

I hate that one commercial from that company with that guy in it that is way too loud when I watch TV.

The grace periods built into this act seem arbitrary and completely spineless.

Explain to me why the act was introduced a year ago, was finally approved, and now advertisers have Another whole year before they need to comply.

Why would we need to suffer another entire year (or more)?? It takes no longer than three months to comply (what is the average lifespan of a commercial - like one month or less?).

Plus there will be a zillion extensions - to 2014 even!

I think this is ridiculous. Tell them as of March 2012 they need to comply.

yeah, it's great they are doing this, but a little late. Thanks to DVR's, most people don't even watch commercials anymore. I can't remember the last time I watched something live. My hope is that this extends to internet related media as well. You watch a streaming show on ABC's website because the DVR didn't tape for some reason (or the president or a sporting event screwed up the schedule) - the website has built in commercials that are REDICULOUSLY louder than the the show. And you can't skip them because of the way they write the website. So you end up muting the sound because it's quicker than turning the volume down... now how are you supposed to sell your product to a group of people who have their sound muted? Stupid executives, always making things worse by trying to make more money.

Web Developer: "Something must be wrong with our coding of the site, the ad's are 10 times louder than the show, I'll try and fix it"
Executive: "no no, that's intentional. We think we can raise more money if more people can hear us as they walk away to get their popcorn"
Developer: "But it's really annoying and makes me want to turn it off"
Exec: "What I say is right, You're fired"

So long, Billy Mays.

if you are running for president, you cant get payed for your work.... basicly.... lets say a comedian wanted to seriously try to throw his hand in, he couldnt be payed for his appearances while he is running....

its a really stupid rule, and it ensures that anyone who is carismatic but not rich cant run, or has to have sponsors.

Thank F&*(& god !!!

Thank you, Obama.

you forgot to mention "Destroying the Military"....there are so many service members who are loosing their jobs because of these so called spending cuts....really? we are at war, yet this idiot of a president wants to cut down the military

Actually, louder commercials are targeted to poorer individuals while more calm ones are for targeted at richer ones. (No, that is not a joke. I have done advertising for several years.) Market research has shown that wealthier individuals respond better to a more classy presentation, while the poorer you get, the more you respond to louder commercials.