Loud TV commercials: what the CALM Act requires, and where the FCC's 2025 review stands

If the ads on your TV seem louder than the show, federal law says they should not be, at least on average. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, enacted on December 15, 2010, led the Federal Communications Commission to require TV stations and pay-TV providers to transmit commercials at an average loudness no higher than that of the programming they accompany. The rules took effect on December 13, 2012. In 2025 the FCC asked whether they still work, after complaints rose. Here is what they require, what they leave out and where the review stands.

What the rule requires

Under the CALM Act, the FCC made an industry standard mandatory: the Advanced Television Systems Committee's A/85 Recommended Practice, an industry method for measuring and managing loudness in digital TV audio. It applies to commercial TV stations and to multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), the FCC's term for pay-TV providers such as cable and satellite operators. The rules are in 47 CFR 73.682(e) and 76.607, the second covering MVPDs. The FCC updated them in 2014 to reflect minor changes in the standard.

How a provider shows compliance depends on who put the ad into the stream. For commercials it inserts itself, an MVPD is deemed compliant if it installs, uses and maintains equipment that measures loudness and sets the audio's dialnorm metadata to match, keeps records of that use and maintenance, and certifies that it knows of no uncorrected violation and that its own equipment is not behind any pattern of complaints. For commercials that arrive embedded in a network's programming, the rule sets out safe harbors that depend on the provider's size.

A spot check means monitoring 24 uninterrupted hours of programming with a loudness meter that follows the A/85 method, measured after the provider's own equipment, for example at the output of a set-top box, and without telling the network beforehand. If the FCC notifies a station or MVPD of a pattern or trend of complaints, it has 30 days to run a 24-hour spot check of the channel at issue.

Why the FCC reopened the rules

The FCC adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking on February 27, 2025, published in the Federal Register on March 11, 2025, saying it had been more than ten years since it last acted on loud commercials. Complaints dropped significantly in the years after the rules took effect, it wrote, but in recent years it has received thousands from frustrated viewers, and it saw “a significant uptick” in 2024.

By our arithmetic, the 2024 count is at least double the 2023 figure. The FCC also pointed to a weakness in the standard itself: it measures a commercial's average loudness, not its maximum. The agency cited anecdotal reports that some advertisers may be trying to “game” the system by opening with exceptionally loud sounds and then lowering the volume to reach a compliant average. Since 2013, completely silent passages have been left out of the average, but very quiet passages have not. The FCC asked whether the standard should use something other than simple averaging, and whether its TV complaint form could be made clearer, since complaints must include enough detail for it to spot trends.

Streaming is outside the rule

The CALM rules cover broadcasters and MVPDs, not streaming services. The FCC noted that complaints show “growing concern” about loud commercials on streaming services and other online platforms, and asked whether it has the authority to act or would need new authority from Congress. It also asked viewers whether they can hear and understand dialogue in streamed shows and movies and whether poor audio particularly affects people with disabilities, and asked whether a lack of industry-wide audio standards for streaming contributes. The notice proposes no rules for streaming providers, and the FCC said it would not regulate any of them without first seeking comment in a further notice. It also noted that legislation to modernize and expand the CALM Act was introduced in 2023.

Where the review stands

Comments were due on April 10, 2025, and replies on April 25, 2025. The FCC's semiannual regulatory agenda, published on August 14, 2026, lists the proceeding, MB Docket No. 25-72, with the March 2025 notice as its last action and its next action as “Undetermined.” Our search of the Federal Register on November 13, 2026 found no final rule in that proceeding. On November 5, 2026, the FCC published a notice that it was asking the Office of Management and Budget to extend the currently approved record-keeping and reporting requirements under the CALM rules, which it estimates cover 2,937 respondents; comments are due by December 7, 2026. In our reading, the 2012 rules, as updated in 2014, still apply as written.

The 2025 notice described two routes for viewers. Comments for the rulemaking go through the FCC's electronic comment filing system. Complaints filed with the FCC's consumer complaint center do not become part of that record, the agency said, but are shared internally for possible enforcement, and under the current rules a station or MVPD hears from the FCC only when it finds a pattern or trend of complaints. Our guide to closed caption settings covers another FCC rule for TV viewers.