Constitutional Law

Obama signs bill to squelch volume of loud commercials

By By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama has signed legislation to prevent advertisers from abruptly raising the volume of TV commercials louder than regular programming.

The new law requires the Federal Communications Commission, within one year, to adopt industry standards coordinating ad-decibel levels to those of the regular program.

The new regulations are to go into effect a year after that. They apply to all broadcast providers, including cable and satellite.

Lawmakers who sponsored the bill, H.R. 1084, said they were reacting to their constituents' complaints about abrasively loud television commercials ? and their own experiences.

The FCC has been receiving complaints since the 1960s about jarring sound bursts when commercials come on, but had not regulated program or advertisement volume.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on December 15, 2010 (boomark / email).