Sep 16, 2008 3:29 PM, By George Petersen

You can tell it's an election year. Members of the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress are considering the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, which would require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a standard to preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program material they accompany.

The text of this proposed legislation (bills H.R. 6209 and S. 3154) states:

"Within one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall prescribe pursuant to the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) a regulation that provides, in connection with any video programming that is broadcast or that is distributed by any multichannel video programming distributor, that—

(1) advertisements accompanying such video programming shall not be excessively noisy or strident;
(2) such advertisements shall not be presented at modulation levels substantially higher than the program material that such advertisements accompany; and
(3) the average maximum loudness of such advertisements shall not be substantially higher than the average maximum loudness of the program material that such advertisements accompany."

For more information about the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, click here.

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