The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is seeking public comment on its plan to update its rules on the permitted sound volume of advertisements shown on network, cable, and satellite television broadcasting.
In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the Commission lays the groundwork for revising its 10-year-old regulations under the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2010, which are applicable to all television stations and multichannel video programming providers (MVPDs). The NPRM invites consumers to share their experiences with the FCC so that the Commission can more fully understand what changes should be made to current requirements to address the problem more effectively.
The Commission cites a significant uptick in consumer complaints it has received in connection with loud commercials as evidence of the need to conduct its proposed review of the effectiveness of current regulations. Specifically, the Commission says that it received at least 1700 complaints in 2024 referencing loud commercials, compared with 825 in 2023 and just 750 in 2022.
Comments on the FCC’s NPRM on the loudness of broadcast commercial advertising can be filed until the end of March through the FCC’s online filing system at http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/ (reference Docket No. 25-72). The text of the NPRM is available at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-25-16A1.pdf
