NCTA: FCC Should Exempt Program Promos From Ad-Loudness Rules

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to limit rules aimed at curbing loud TV ads -- set to go into effect this December -- to commercial advertisements and exempt TV programming promotions.

The trade group, in a filing last week, said Federal Communications Commission rules implementing the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act fail to sufficiently reduce the burden on operators for noncompliance "in a handful of respects." Specifically, the NCTA said, the FTC should limit its rules to commercial ads, rather than also including "promotional material." In addition, the group sought clarification that a cable operator will not be held liable in instances in which it has notified a network and the FCC of a network's noncompliance with CALM and the NCTA wants to ensure MSOS are not prohibited from contacting programmers when performing spot checks.