Advertisers now have to keep it down

According to today's (Glasgow) Herald:

"Viewers will no longer have to turn the volume down during ad breaks
under new rules announced today.

"Television ads must not be "excessively noisy or strident" under the
regulations published by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising
Practice (BCAP).

"The rules come into force on July 7 following concerns that TV ads
sometimes seemed louder than programming..

"The regulations say that the "maximum subjective loudness" of
advertisements must be consistent with that of programmes.

"Last year the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received more
than 100 complaints that some TV ads were to loud.

"BCAP spokesman Shahriar Coupal said: "This should prevent consumers
having to turn down the volume during breaks."

I thought that there was already a rule that advertisements must not
be louder than programmes. I suppose the difference is the reference
to "subjective loudness" but I wonder how this is to be monitored. If
the equipment shows a constant volume and the advert sounds louder for
whatever reason how will this be picked up?

Do complaints go to ASA or BCAP? Will they have to listen to
recordings to make up their mind? Will this apply to all channels
broadcast in the UK or just UK originated channels?

In article ,
Scott wrote:
According to today's (Glasgow) Herald:

And R4 on Today.

"Viewers will no longer have to turn the volume down during ad breaks
under new rules announced today.

I wouldn't bet on it.

"Television ads must not be "excessively noisy or strident" under the
regulations published by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising
Practice (BCAP).

"The rules come into force on July 7 following concerns that TV ads
sometimes seemed louder than programming..

Which programming?

"The regulations say that the "maximum subjective loudness" of
advertisements must be consistent with that of programmes.

Again, which program? An ad break in the middle of, say, 'Who want's to be
a Millionaire' will never sound too loud. Apart to those who simply just
hate all adverts, obviously. But in the Middle of a fairly gentle drama
like Foyle's War is likely to - depending on the first ad.

"Last year the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received more
than 100 complaints that some TV ads were to loud.

Heh heh. The BBC receive far more than that about the content of just one
prog and do nothing about it.

"BCAP spokesman Shahriar Coupal said: "This should prevent consumers
having to turn down the volume during breaks."

The big snag is it is subjective - so difficult to prove. There simply
isn't any way of measuring loudness that everyone finds acceptable. And
since the advertisers pay the piper they're unlikely to allow the levels
to be reduced to the point where they never offend anyone.

I thought that there was already a rule that advertisements must not
be louder than programmes. I suppose the difference is the reference
to "subjective loudness" but I wonder how this is to be monitored. If
the equipment shows a constant volume and the advert sounds louder for
whatever reason how will this be picked up?

Indeed. At the moment the standard for audio levels is still the PPM -
which reads audio peaks. And commercials on ITV1 already peak at least 4dB
below the maximum program level. Some even more than this.

Do complaints go to ASA or BCAP? Will they have to listen to
recordings to make up their mind? Will this apply to all channels
broadcast in the UK or just UK originated channels?

The obvious way is to have a skilled human rehearse the transition into
each and every break and set the ad levels so they doesn't clash. But this
would be extremely expensive to implement. And one of the most boring jobs
possible...

--


Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Scott" wrote in message
...
According to today's (Glasgow) Herald:

"Viewers will no longer have to turn the volume down during ad breaks
under new rules announced today.




It is a shame this does not apply to ****inuty Shouters and the BBC's own
advertisements.

"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:

Indeed. At the moment the standard for audio levels is still the PPM -
which reads audio peaks. And commercials on ITV1 already peak at least 4dB
below the maximum program level. Some even more than this.

So make it less subjective. Something like the peak level of any advert
must not exceed the peak level of the 5 minutes of programming preceding
the advert nor must the 'average' level in an advert be more than xdB
higher than the average level in the preceding 5 minutes of programming.

In article ,
Graham Murray wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:

Indeed. At the moment the standard for audio levels is still the PPM -
which reads audio peaks. And commercials on ITV1 already peak at least
4dB below the maximum program level. Some even more than this.

So make it less subjective. Something like the peak level of any advert
must not exceed the peak level of the 5 minutes of programming preceding
the advert nor must the 'average' level in an advert be more than xdB
higher than the average level in the preceding 5 minutes of programming.

You'd need to be a deal more specific than that. And as soon as you
produce this sort of spec the lads in dubbing will find a way round it
without actually breaking the regs. I can think of several...

As I said it's a subjective thing. My system at home is 'broadcast
quality' and I rarely find advert levels unacceptably loud. Certainly not
enough to make a song and dance about. I actually find the way continuity
announcements crash in on the top of closing music far, far more
objectionable. And those are totally under the control of the broadcasters
unlike commercials.

--
*I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 07/05/2008 16:03, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

As I said it's a subjective thing. My system at home is 'broadcast
quality' and I rarely find advert levels unacceptably loud. Certainly not
enough to make a song and dance about.

Channel hopping from a TV channel to one of the commercial radio
channels can be pretty painful though.

In article [email protected],
Andy Burns wrote:
As I said it's a subjective thing. My system at home is 'broadcast
quality' and I rarely find advert levels unacceptably loud. Certainly
not enough to make a song and dance about.

Channel hopping from a TV channel to one of the commercial radio
channels can be pretty painful though.

Indeed. On FreeView, TV sound sticks to the EBU broadcasting spec for
digital - ie peaks no more than -10 dBFS. Pop and commercial radio on the
other hand hammer it as usual.

Their excuse always is that most listen to radio in a car. Don't see many
cars with 'FreeView' aerials...

--
*If you can read this, thank a teecher

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Scott" wrote in message
...
According to today's (Glasgow) Herald:

"Viewers will no longer have to turn the volume down during ad breaks
under new rules announced today.


What they have been doing for a while is lowering the level of programmes,
but
keeping the adverts at normal level. That means people turn up the volume
for
watching TV and get blown across the room with the much louder audio level
from the advert!

"Television ads must not be "excessively noisy or strident" under the
regulations published by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising
Practice (BCAP).


Does that mean the removal of extreme audio compression? This appears to
make the advert louder and "noisier".


"The rules come into force on July 7 following concerns that TV ads
sometimes seemed louder than programming..

"The regulations say that the "maximum subjective loudness" of
advertisements must be consistent with that of programmes.

"Last year the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received more
than 100 complaints that some TV ads were to loud.

"BCAP spokesman Shahriar Coupal said: "This should prevent consumers
having to turn down the volume during breaks."

I thought that there was already a rule that advertisements must not
be louder than programmes. I suppose the difference is the reference
to "subjective loudness" but I wonder how this is to be monitored. If
the equipment shows a constant volume and the advert sounds louder for
whatever reason how will this be picked up?

Do complaints go to ASA or BCAP? Will they have to listen to
recordings to make up their mind? Will this apply to all channels
broadcast in the UK or just UK originated channels?

In article , Rob wrote:
"Viewers will no longer have to turn the volume down during ad breaks
under new rules announced today.


What they have been doing for a while is lowering the level of programmes,*
but
keeping the adverts at normal level. *That means people turn up the volume*
for
watching TV and get blown across the room with the much louder audio level
from the advert!

I hope this doesn't mean they're going to interpret the new requirement by
raising the volume level and/or the amount of compression of the programme
sound, rather than lowering it for the adverts which is what they should do.

Rod.

In article ,
Rob wrote:
What they have been doing for a while is lowering the level of
programmes, but keeping the adverts at normal level. That means people
turn up the volume for watching TV and get blown across the room with
the much louder audio level from the advert!

That is simply rubbish.

"Television ads must not be "excessively noisy or strident" under the
regulations published by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising
Practice (BCAP).


Does that mean the removal of extreme audio compression? This appears to
make the advert louder and "noisier".

Compression is used in every program too. Dunno what you mean by 'extreme'.

--
*A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.