FCC tells streaming commercials to turn down the volume

In the United States, it’s illegal for commercials to blast the volume louder than regular programming. But as any casual glance at the news will tell you, laws don’t apply if no one is enforcing them. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking a fresh look at this annoying issue, with an eye to expanding enforcement to streaming services.

According to a press release yesterday (PDF), the FCC is inviting public comment on proposed rules to expand its enforcement of the CALM Act of 2012, wherein Congress codified the law that stopped commercials from blasting at higher and higher volumes relative to the scheduled programming around them. While the Commission saw a decrease after enforcing the original rules on broadcast, cable, and satellite TV providers, it says that those complaints have increased again in recent years. The FCC says this warrants further investigation and possibly new rules to crack down on loud offenders.

A longer report (PDF, spotted by PCMag) fills in some of the blanks. Some advertisers might be sticking to the letter of the FCC’s codes while violating the spirit of the law. One method appears to be blasting the watcher with a few seconds of loud noises at the start of an ad before lowering the volume for the rest, averaging out to be in compliance. (The evidence for this is “anecdotal,” according to the report.) The FCC will look into adjusting its enforcement of the Act to address these.

But I can’t remember the last time I watched cable or satellite TV outside of an elderly relative’s home, and the CALM Act’s enforcement doesn’t apply to streaming services like Netflix or Max, which are increasingly pushing ads on their users. The FCC admits that even with various tools at its disposal, it may require a new or amended law from Congress to expand its regulation into streaming services.

The media companies raking in advertising dollars will certainly see any weakness in that authority as a reason to sic lawyers on the Commission, to say nothing of the Trump regime’s anti-regulatory stance. There’s no definite timeline for new rules or codes to enforce the CALM Act yet.