Recent FCC data about consumer complaints “is a...
Recent FCC data about consumer complaints “is a clear reflection that the American people continue to care deeply about lowering the volume of TV commercials,” wrote the House and Senate authors of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act (http://1.usa.gov/1213NMd).…
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On Tuesday, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., urged the commission in a letter to continue tracking consumer complaints about the volume of TV commercials and requested quarterly reports of such complaints through Dec. 31, 2014. The law is designed to ban TV ads with volume levels much louder than the programming they're shown with. The commission received 15,850 loud commercial complaints from Dec. 13, 2012, to June 5, 2013, wrote acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, responding to an earlier letter on the law from Eshoo and Whitehouse (http://1.usa.gov/14omhJO). Of those complaints, 10,700 were referred to the Enforcement Bureau for analysis, the letter said, and 55 of the total complaints were regarding loud commercials related to on-demand programming. Clyburn’s letter did not detail any trends or patterns of noncompliance because the bureau’s effort is “ongoing.” A commission review is “underway” to identify any patterns or trends that indicate noncompliance, she said in her letter that was made public Tuesday. The agency has granted 170 waiver requests from TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors, the letter said.