HR 6209 - Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act

To require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a standard to preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program material they accompany.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 9, 2008

Ms. ESHOO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

A BILL

To require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a standard to preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program material they accompany.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act'.

SEC. 2. RULEMAKING ON LOUD COMMERCIALS REQUIRED.

(a) Regulation Required- Within one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall prescribe pursuant to the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) a regulation that provides, in connection with any video programming that is broadcast or that is distributed by any multichannel video programming distributor, that--

(1) advertisements accompanying such video programming shall not be excessively noisy or strident;

(2) such advertisements shall not be presented at modulation levels substantially higher than the program material that such advertisements accompany; and

(3) the average maximum loudness of such advertisements shall not be substantially higher than the average maximum loudness of the program material that such advertisements accompany.

(b) Definitions- For purposes of this section, the terms `video programming' and `multichannel video programming distributor' have the meanings given such terms in section 602 of Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 522).

END