111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2847 

AN ACT 

To regulate the volume of audio on commercials. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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S 2847 ES 

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Commercial Advertise3 ment Loudness Mitigation Act’’ or the ‘‘CALM Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. RULEMAKING ON LOUD COMMERCIALS REQUIRED. 

5 (a) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—Within 1 year after 

6 the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Commu7 nications Commission shall prescribe pursuant to the 

8 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) a 

9 regulation that is limited to incorporating by reference and 

10 making mandatory (subject to any waivers the Commis11 sion may grant) the ‘‘Recommended Practice: Techniques 

12 for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Dig13 ital Television’’ (A/85), and any successor thereto, ap14 proved by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, 

15 only insofar as such recommended practice concerns the 

16 transmission of commercial advertisements by a television 

17 broadcast station, cable operator, or other multichannel 

18 video programming distributor. 

19 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.— 

20 (1) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The Federal Commu21 nications Commission shall prescribe that the regula22 tion adopted pursuant to subsection (a) shall become 

23 effective 1 year after the date of its adoption. 

24 (2) WAIVER.—For any television broadcast sta25 tion, cable operator, or other multichannel video pro26 gramming distributor that demonstrates that obtain-
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1 ing the equipment to comply with the regulation 

2 adopted pursuant to subsection (a) would result in 

3 financial hardship, the Federal Communications 

4 Commission may grant a waiver of the effective date 

5 set forth in paragraph (1) for 1 year and may renew 

6 such waiver for 1 additional year. 

7 (3) WAIVER AUTHORITY.—Nothing in this sec8 tion affects the Commission’s authority under sec9 tion 1.3 of its rules (47 C.F.R. 1.3) to waive any 

10 rule required by this Act, or the application of any 

11 such rule, for good cause shown to a television 

12 broadcast station, cable operator, or other multi13 channel video programming distributor, or to a class 

14 of such stations, operators, or distributors. 

15 (c) COMPLIANCE.—Any broadcast television operator, 

16 cable operator, or other multichannel video programming 

17 distributor that installs, utilizes, and maintains in a com18 mercially reasonable manner the equipment and associated 

19 software in compliance with the regulations issued by the 

20 Federal Communications Commission in accordance with 

21 subsection (a) shall be deemed to be in compliance with 

22 such regulations. 

23 (d) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 
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1 (1) the term ‘‘television broadcast station’’ has 

2 the meaning given such term in section 325 of the 

3 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325); and 

4 (2) the terms ‘‘cable operator’’ and ‘‘multi5 channel video programming distributor’’ have the 

6 meanings given such terms in section 602 of Com7 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 522). 

Passed the Senate September 29, 2010. 

Attest: 

Secretary. 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2847 

AN ACT 

To regulate the volume of audio on commercials.