Sunday, January 10, 2010

Why are Tv commercials so darn loud?

I know I'm not the only one who has noticed that over the years the loudness of tv commercials has gotten louder. Because Rep. Anna G. Eshoo of California has introduced the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (the CALM Act) in Congress in an attempt to battle excessive noise. It has yet to be passed but enough people are upset about the loudness that it has made it's way to congress.

That should tell the tv people something, maybe that we don't like what they are doing. Seriously.

I was reading different websites question and answer pages about why the commercials are so loud and have found out how and why they do it.

The people who produce and have the commercials on tv aren't allowed to let the volume go over the loudness volume in whatever we are watching right before the commercial comes on. So if we are watching a movie and in the movie somewhere there is a really loud explosion (even if it only lasts for a second), they are allowed to let the entire commercial reach the loudness level of that explosion.

They do it because they think we will look and pay attention more to the tv and what's being advertised on it when it's louder, thus they want to get out attention.

It's stupid thinking on their parts, really. I love my DVR and use it for just about every program I watch now. I can fast forward through every single commercial there is and I love that.