OTTAWA – Nearly 7,000 Canadians have told the CRTC that television commercials are too loud, and, that they want the Regulator to do something about it.
The Commission got an earful after asking for comments back in February on measures to control the loudness of commercial messages. It launched the public consultation after receiving hundreds of complaints, and comments were due last week.
“It is highly annoying the number of times we need to adjust the volume from commercials back to programming”, wrote Mark Dostie from Richmond, B.C., in his submission to the CRTC. “In fact we will often ‘pause’ the commercials (PVR) and then jump over them to the programming JUST to avoid the noise differences instead of just adjusting the volume. Or we will MUTE the TV until the commercials are over. In both cases the commercial has failed in its purpose.”
The majority of public comments made to the Commission appear to echo those sentiments:
“I absolutely oppose the fact that commercials are able to broadcast at a higher volume”, wrote Margaret Johnson from Saskatoon. “The fact that they waste 3 to 4 minutes of my time every 7 minutes is frustrating enough. I do not want nor need them to be louder than the TV show I’m watching!”
Other submissions offered potential solutions:
“In a world where we are bombarded with sound pollution everywhere we go…can we not at least have some control in the privacy of our own homes”, wrote Amy Porter from Regina. “Perhaps televisions should come equipped with digital sound level adjusters. itunes provides consumers with the ability to adjust sound levels from song to song – and works very effectively. Please do something to help us CRTC.”
The Commission also asked the industry to weigh in on the issue, specifically how broadcasters currently control the loudness of commercials, and, for suggestions on potential technical and regulatory changes.
Describing itself “a leader amongst Canadian broadcasters in loudness control”, CBC/Radio-Canada said in its application that it has formed an “internal loudness control committee” to review current international standards and to examine the issue across its own TV, radio and digital platforms.
While not suggesting regulatory changes, it did recommend that broadcasters adhere to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards issued in 2009 that set out a target loudness level and methods to control the loudness of commercial messages relative to adjacent programming.
“The Commission should issue a policy that sets an expectation that all broadcasters take the necessary steps to control the loudness of commercial messages and supports the ATSC A/85 Recommended Practice as the minimum standard for loudness control for all Canadian broadcasters”, reads the Corporation’s submission, which said that it “is almost compliant with the recommended practices”.
Rogers also backed the ATSC recommendations and said that “BDUs have an important role to play in normalizing audio levels since programming services can often only address the issue of audio levels for a subset of the programming they offer”.
Its submission detailed an “integrated hardware solution” that it began deploying last year on its cable distribution network which measures each program’s average loudness and adjusts actual audio levels accordingly to maintain a constant level within the channel itself. Rogers said that the solution has already been applied to about 120 of its “highly-viewed channels” and that it continues to roll it out across its remaining channels.
While not recommending specific regulatory changes, Rogers also suggested that all service providers should comply with the ATSC’s recommended standards.
– Lesley Hunter
