Washington, D.C. - Legislation regulating the volume of commercial advertisements cleared its first hurtle today on its way toward passage in the U.S. House of Representatives. H.R. 1084, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, passed out of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet by a voice vote and will face full committee consideration.

Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Palo Alto), the sponsor of the bill, issued the following statement:

"I'm pleased by the Subcommittee's overwhelming support and its recognition of this problem and I'm gratified by the bill's passage. The problem of loud commercials is not new. It has bothered consumers and endangered their hearing for decades. Under the CALM Act, consumers will control the sound and no one else will be able to take that control from them. As the chief sponsor and as a consumer, I look forward to the day this bill becomes law."

During the mark-up Rep. Eshoo also submitted an amendment to the CALM Act which directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt technology standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee to solve the volume issue. It also provides a one year grace period for providers to comply once the law passes and allows the FCC to grant hardship waivers for up to two years.

Rep. Eshoo said, "These changes strengthen the bill and allow small stations and operators ample time to comply with the law. There will not be an open-ended waiver process that drags on for several years. Consumers have waited long enough for this simple but critical change to take place."

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Recently some TV stations have begun broadcasting full strength DTV signals hence leaving older televisions without built-in digital tuner with fewer stations. These stations have stopped broadcasting their digital signals all together. So even if you have cable you may need a DTV Cable Box for each Analog TV in your home becomes a question.

The FCC and the cable companies have left most of their publications open to interpretation by using word like "Should" & "Probably"

As of March 1, 2007, all television receivers shipped in interstate commerce or imported into the United States must contain a digital tuner. In addition, effective May 25, 2007, the Commission required sellers of television receiving equipment that does not include a digital tuner to disclose at the point-of-sale that such devices include only an analog tuner, and therefore will require a digital-to-analog converter box to receive over-the-air broadcast television after the transition date. Retailers must inform consumers by prominently displaying the following text if they are selling TV equipment with only an analog tuner: "This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation’s transition to digital broadcasting".

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Finding information about the Cable TV Industry can prove difficult. Their is much disinformation about The DTV Transformation and Cable Industry in general. 

NCTA , (National Cable & Telecommunications Association) is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable industry, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation's cable television households and more than 200 cable program networks. There are a wide variety of suppliers to the industry.

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