CALM Act Expected to Pass Out of Senate Commerce Committee [Multichannel News]
Known as the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, it's on track to pass the U.S. Senate with important changes that will help resolve differences in volume levels between TV programming and commercials. If you've watched cable programming then saw commercials with much louder audio, you likely have a keen understanding why Congress is grappling with this issue.
This week the Senate's Commerce Committee adopted the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ASTC) recommended practices for handling variances in programming and advertisement volume as part of the CALM Act. The committee passed the legislation out for consideration by the full Senate. If passed, cable and satellite operators and broadcasters would be required to implement the CALM requirements to normalize volume levels within a year of it's passage.
The committee also made other amendments to CALM: making the volume handling standards an FCC mandate, providing for any ASTC successor standards to be part of the law and providing temporary waivers to smaller cable operators that would have a financial hardship to comply with CALM. Assuming CALM passes the full Senate, the House would have to agree to these changes before the legislation could become law.
Conversations took place for months in hopes of finding a voluntary solution before Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced a bill. It's a perfect example of when private industry should proactively act responsibly to avoid having to deal with the consequences of legislation. Even I supported the legislation when no solutions were forthcoming.
It's about time, this is the oldest trick in the book since black & white TV.
Posted by: ARGO | Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 11:47 PM