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Why Commercials Are So Loud, and What You Can Do to Turn Them Down

Photo from Erik McLean via Unsplash

Why Commercials Are So Loud, and What You Can Do to Turn Them Down

By Movieguide® Contributor

Have you noticed that commercials seem to play way louder than the show or movie you’re watching? You’re not alone. 

In 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or the CALM Act, into place. The CALM Act regulates how loud commercials can be, but there are limits to the FCC’s reach. 

When you’re streaming, whether it’s through a paid-subscription service like Hulu or Peacock or a FAST channel like Freevee, “there’s really no rules regarding how loud commercials can be,” MSN reported. This means the volume can vary from service to service and even channel to channel. 

READ MORE: WAIT, DOES BROADCAST TV STILL MATTER?

“TV advertisers have always known that ad breaks are when people go to the bathroom, to the kitchen, or are likely to move around,” Dave Morgan, CEO and founder of TV advertising platform Simulmedia, told Marketing Brew. “Being able to make sure that your audio pops is a way to make sure that you’re memorable.”

Stephen Beck, managing partner of the consultancy cg42, said that viewers shouldn’t blame streamers for the loud commercials. 

“The platforms will wrestle with all of this if they are blamed for it,” he explained. “Nobody blames the advertising agency [that] did it, because they don’t know who they are. Oftentimes, we blame the brand that’s interrupting us, not the platform that allowed it to happen. And that is the conundrum here.”

Some legislators are working to update the CALM Act to cover streaming services, but in the meantime, there are some steps you can take to avoid headache-inducing commercial breaks. 

MSN reported that “the best thing viewers at home can do is adjust the audio settings on their devices,” which varies depending on what kind of TV you have, while Comic Book Resources gave another tip to Hulu users. 

“In the case of most if not all streaming platforms that are supported in part by advertisers, users can choose to subscribe to an ad-free subscription tier, which on Hulu eliminates the streaming service’s loud commercials entirely,” CBR wrote

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