http://www.mcclatchydc.com/washington/story/69922.html * Posted on Thursday, June 11, 2009
Broadcasters promise plan to quiet TV ads by September
By Carrie Wells | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers stepped aside Thursday and agreed to let broadcasters come up with a system for toning down loud TV ads.
However, they warned that if the broadcasters didn't tone down their act, they'd reintroduce a bill next year to make the Federal Communications Commission turn down the volume on loud commercials.
Industry leaders said they'd reach an agreement by September on what David Donovan, president of the Association for Maximum Service Television, called "recommended practice" for the sound levels of shows and ads.
"We get it," Donovan said of the loud ad complaints. "As a matter of pure economics, we do not want to lose viewers."
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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/69822.html * Posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Here's some good news: Loud TV ads may be near an end
By Carrie Wells | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Congress soon might mute screaming TV-ad announcers who press viewers to "buy now!" — if broadcasters don't beat the lawmakers to the volume button.
Under a proposal to be taken up Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission would squelch ad volumes to the average decibels of the TV show during which they appear.
Currently, TV ads can't be louder than the loudest peak in a show, said David Perry, the chairman of the broadcast production committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies in New York. Ads often seem louder to viewers, he added, because a program's volume peak rarely comes just before an ad.
"Every time the ads came on they blew me out of my seat," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who introduced the bill last June. "It really turns you off, makes you think, 'I'll be damned if I give them any of my money.' "
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"People practically throw their arms around me when they hear about it," she said.
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