II 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 2847 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES December 8, 2009 Mr. Whitehouse (for himself and Mr. Schumer) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To regulate the volume of audio on commercials.

1.

Short title

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

2.

Rulemaking on loud commercials required

(a)

Rulemaking required

Within 1 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 is limited to incorporating by reference the Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television (A/85), and any successor thereto, approved by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, only insofar as such recommended practice concerns the transmission of commercial advertisements by a television broadcast station, cable operator, or other multichannel video programming distributor. (b)

Implementation

(1)

Effective date

The Federal Communications Commission shall prescribe that the regulation adopted pursuant to subsection (a) shall become effective 1 year after the date of its adoption. (2)

Waiver

For any television broadcast station, cable operator, or other multichannel video programming distributor that demonstrates that obtaining the equipment to comply with the regulation adopted pursuant to subsection (a) would result in financial hardship, the Federal Communications Commission may grant a waiver of the effective date set forth in paragraph (1) for 1 year and may renew such waiver for 1 additional year. (c)

Definitions

For purposes of this section— (1)the term television broadcast station has the meaning given such term in section 325 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325); and (2)the terms cable operator and multi-channel video programming distributor have the meanings given such terms in section 602 of Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 522).