New loudness rules released
Dec 13, 2011 2:49 PM, By Michael Grotticelli
On Dec. 15, 2010, President Obama signed the CALM Act into law. Now the rules for compliance have been clearly defined.
As expected, the FCC has defined new rules, enforceable within a year, to ensure consistent audio levels for programs and commercials distributed by broadcasters and subscription TV providers in the U.S. The rules go into effect on Dec. 13, 2012.
The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act was signed into law by President Obama on Dec. 15, 2010, and adheres to a previously approved Recommended Practice for transmitting commercials, developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (and known as ATSC A/85 RP).
In a public meeting before the commission, Lyle Elder — a staff member in the FCC Media Bureau’s policy division — presented the rules, stating that compliance is now mandatory on all commercial advertising transmitted by broadcasters and other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs). The order covers both the local commercials they insert and the embedded commercials they pass through as part of programming supplied by a network or programmer.
Under the order, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau will notify stations and MVPDs of potential non-compliance if it receives “a pattern or trend” of consumer complaints. Once a pattern of non-compliance has been established, fines of as much as $10,000 per occurrence could be levied.
“Since retroactively demonstrating compliance may be difficult, the order provides two methods by which entities may equally demonstrate ongoing compliance,” Elder said. “With respect to locally inserted commercials, stations and MVPDs must demonstrate that they installed, utilized and maintained the equipment and software in a commercially reasonable manner.”
Regarding embedded commercials, the order provides an alternative “safe harbor” approach, Elder said, that involves a combination of certification by programmers and spot checks by distributors.
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