II 110th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3156 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 18, 2008 Mr. Wicker introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 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.

1.

Short title

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

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).