Someone's listening

I've received a sort of satisfactory response to my question about the volume at which ads are broadcast from Geoff Russell, the IPA secretary and director for media affairs. I've posted his comments below, but in short it seems like there maybe some new regulation in the pipeline. I only hope someone is still watching TV when the consultation paper turns into action...

You may be interested to hear that BCAP (Broadcasting Commitee of Advertising Practice) is about to issue a consultation paper in this area.

Clearly it is in no-one's interest to upset viewers by making commercials excessively loud - and I am sure that you know that there are rules in this context, with the ASA actually censuring broadcasters when they believe a break has been significantly louder than the surrounding programming.

Having said this, we are all aware of occasions when ads do seem to come over as particularly strident.

In fact, between 1 September 2005 and 1 December 2006, the ASA received

245 viewer complaints about the perceived high sound levels of TV advertisements. Viewers supplied transmission details in 43 cases and, of those, 11 were felt likely to have breached rule 6.9 of the BCAP TV Code.

This is clearly not a large figure given the '000's of commercials likely to have been transmitted during this period, but it is nevertheless something which needs to be looked at.

As indicated, at present, volume in commercials is governed by rule 6.9 of the BCAP Code.

This currently states:

6.9 Sound levels in advertisements

"Advertisements must not be excessively noisy or strident. Studio transmission power must not be increased from normal levels during advertising.

Note:

The peak level of sound at the studio output should not exceed +8dBm.

To ensure that the subjective volume is consistent with adjacent programming, whilst also preventing excessive loudness changes, highly compressed commercials should be limited to a Normal Peak of 4 and a Full Range of 2*4 (measured on a PPM Type IIa, specified in BS6840:

Part 10, Programme Level Meters). A fairly constant average level of sound energy should be maintained in transitions from programmes to advertising breaks and vice versa so that listeners do not need to adjust the volume. A perceived loudness meter may be useful where sound levels might cause problems."

BCAP is aware that broadcasters with otherwise excellent records of compliance with the BCAP TV Code have been found in breach of rule 6.9 on more than one occasion.

According to them, this indicates that the existing rule is leading to confusion among broadcasters; particularly regarding an uncertainty about what constitutes an appropriate sound level for a TV advertisement

- other than (and here it gets technical!) somewhere between PPM 4 /

+0dBm or lower (for highly-compressed advertisements) and PPM 6 / +8dBm

(the peak level of sound at the studio output).

It may be then that the present rule relies too heavily on perceptions of "loudness", rather than providing an objective method for measuring the loudness levels of the broadcast output.

Given this, BCAP has proposed to revise the current rule to provide greater certainty for broadcasters - while maintaining the consumer protection afforded by the existing regulation.

However, while this might mean that advertisements should not peak over the normal subjective loudness levels of programmes, it may not be possible to eradicate entirely the effect of advertisements seeming louder if they are aired during a programme with mostly quiet content (such as a period drama with extended sections of softly-spoken dialogue) than if they are aired during a programme with a mostly loud content (such as motorsport).

In a nutshell - what this all means is:

- we recognise that there is an occasional problem in this area

- no-one is deliberately doing it

- steps are being taken to address it.

Comments

[ironguts]

Technically could an advertiser and broadcaster conspire such that the volume of non-ad programming was reduced to a very low volume level - thereby forcing viewers to turn up their volume to hear the normal programming but then have ads at below the legal limit but which will still blast your ears. In other words is there not a loophole here where ads could be in legal compliance with volume however the same result of loud ads is achieved. (BTW - am with you on ads being too loud)