S. 2847 

One Hundred Eleventh Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, 

the fifth day of January, two thousand and ten 

An Act 

To regulate the volume of audio on commercials. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

SEC. 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 and making mandatory (subject to any waivers the 

Commission may grant) 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. 

(3) WAIVER AUTHORITY.—Nothing in this section affects 

the Commission’s authority under section 1.3 of its rules (47 

C.F.R. 1.3) to waive any rule required by this Act, or the 

application of any such rule, for good cause shown to a television 

broadcast station, cable operator, or other multichannel video 

programming distributor, or to a class of such stations, operators, or distributors. 

(c) COMPLIANCE.—Any broadcast television operator, cable operator, or other multichannel video programming distributor that 

installs, utilizes, and maintains in a commercially reasonable 
S. 2847—2 

manner the equipment and associated software in compliance with 

the regulations issued by the Federal Communications Commission 

in accordance with subsection (a) shall be deemed to be in compliance with such regulations. 

(d) 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). 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.