Senate Takes on Loud TV Commercials Before Leaving to Campaign
The U.S. Congress, unable to agree on adopting a budget or extending tax breaks before recessing, found time to take on loud television commercials.
The Senate unanimously passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act yesterday, which would direct regulators to set limits on the volume of TV ads, before members left Washington to campaign for the Nov. 2 election.
“Every American has likely experienced the frustration of abrasively loud television commercials,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said today in a statement. “Action in the Senate will help end this annoying practice.”
The legislation would direct the Federal Communications Commission to adopt as regulations noise standards set by television broadcasters.
The measure requires a vote in the House, which approved a version this year, after differences are resolved before President Barack Obama can sign it into law, Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat and sponsor of the House bill, said today in an e-mailed statement.
The bill will “give the control of sound back to the consumer, where it belongs,” Eshoo said.
“It’s about time we turned down the volume on loud commercials that try to startle TV watchers into paying attention,” Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in today’s statement. “TV viewers should be able to watch their favorite programs without fear of losing their hearing when the show goes to a commercial.”
Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net.
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