CALM Act Goes Into Effect Today, Puts An End To Loud Commercials

Most of us turn to TV to get ourselves a nice dose of entertainment. Imagine watching one of your favorite movies on HBO when all of a sudden, a TV commercial appears which is a lot louder than the volume of the movie. Naturally, it’s terribly annoying but thankfully, this will no longer be happening.


CALM act

The reason why the end for such loud commercials is near is because starting from today, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act goes into effect. The Act had been passed as far back as 2010 but it is only now that it is being implemented.

As per the Act, FCC is empowered with the authority to decide the volume of the commercials that run on TV. The Act also defines the right volume for such commercials – they must not be any louder than the average volume of the program which they interrupt.

For now, FCC is not going to fully regulate all TV channels to implement the Act. Rather, the agency would spring into action only when it receives a user complaint about any given ad. To file a complaint with FCC, simply navigate to the complaints page.

Whereas the Act will certainly make things better for the users, it does seem a tad bit pointless according to many analysts. Ever since the Act was passed back in 2010, a significant majority of the TV commercials already keep an appropriate volume so as not to irk the viewers. Nonetheless, the Act will still help make the tiny majority of loud commercials tone down their shrieks.

Source: CNN

Courtesy: Arstechnica

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Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

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