CALM Act Rules Take Effect as FCC Continues to Field Financial Hardship Waivers
FCC rules implementing the Commercial Ad Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act took effect Wednesday as the commission continued fielding last-minute requests for waivers from the rule. The law was designed to ban TV ads whose volume is much louder than the programming they're airing with, which during a press conference Thursday Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., called a “small issue compared to the big challenges facing our nation,” but an “unnecessary annoyance in the daily lives of many Americans.” Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Whitehouse sponsored the initial legislation.
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Since adopting the rules, the FCC has fielded more than 100 requests for waivers from them, records show. The vast majority of requests have come from small TV stations and cable systems. And this week, it reopened itself to receiving more waiver requests. In an order granting two temporary waiver requests, the commission said it would continue to accept streamlined financial hardship waivers through Thursday (http://xrl.us/bn6bmd). If more requests continue to come in after that new deadline, the commission will evaluate and determine whether they should be granted and whether any enforcement action is appropriate, a commission official said.
Despite the waivers, most TV viewers will begin to hear the change immediately, said David Oxenford, a broadcast attorney at Wilkinson Barker. “Just from the experience I've had talking to our clients, most TV stations, especially on the popular channels and network affiliates are going to be in compliance in pretty much every market,” he said. In some cases, technical problems are keeping stations from complying with the rules immediately but those issues should be short-lived, he said. “The demands for equipment have slowed done some deliveries."
There may be “bumps along the way,” but the cable industry is committed to complying with the rules, NCTA CEO Michael Powell said at a press conference on the law Thursday. “The solution is quite complex,” he said. It involves a huge ecosystem of participants” including national and local programmers, networks and distributors, he said. “It took a lot to bring that all together in a sophisticated way."
Enforcement and monitoring will occur, but the government won’t go after violators based on a sole viewer complaint, Eshoo said at the press conference. “We want to be sensible about this,” she said. “If there is a ‘major offender,’ it could move to fines,” she said.