'Loud TV Commercials' Banned Starting Dec. 13

Storms have battered both coasts, gas prices are rising with no end in sight, and one-half of the country doesn’t like the president -- but all Americans can probably agree they hate loud commercials. There’s nothing worse than falling asleep on the couch watching a football game or “Desperate Housewives” and then suddenly be shaken awake by an obnoxious car commercial that seems to threaten to blow out the television's speakers.

Beginnning Dec. 13, those commercials will cease to exist. Ibtimes.comreports that's when the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will start enforcing in earnest the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act, enacted in 2010. The FCC's new rules will require broadcast-television stations and pay-TV providers to make sure advertisements have the same average volume as the programs they accompany, the agency said on its website.

The affected companies will have had a year to get ready for the FCC's new regulations, which were OK'd on Dec. 13 of last year.

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