Law Regulating Volume of TV Ads Takes Effect Thursday
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Hemera/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Watching television might become a bit more relaxing Thursday as the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation, or CALM Act, which requires cable and broadcast stations to play commercials at the same volume as the shows they break into, takes effect.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., sponsored the House bill. She says the volume of commercials was a top consumer complaint, calling it “a real source of irritation across the country.”
“I have had members of Congress come up to me and say, ‘My wife wants to know when that…law goes into effect because it’s still irritating us at home.’”
The bill struck a chord with people nationwide, Eshoo says.
“Someone wrote to me from one of the southern states and said, ‘I’m a Republican and I think you should come here and run for governor and you’ll win on this issue.’”
President Obama signed the CALM Act into law in 2010.
Such regulations had not been possible in the past because of limitations on analog television, officials said. Televisions across the country switched to digital signals in June 2009.
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