Labour calls for quieter TV ads (plus: why they're so loud)

Labour broadcasting spokeswoman Clare Curran has pledged a crackdown on blaring ads.

If elected, her party would make it clear to broadcasters that they had to spend money on technology to fix the problem immediately, Ms Curran said.

But why are commercials so much louder than the programmes they interrupt?

NBR asked Dylan Reeve, a freelance editor, post production consultant and co-presenter of cult podcast Discourse, for a primer.

Mr Reeve, who spent several years working for TVNZ, explained:

Television broadcasters specify a maximum "peak" audio level - he loudest any part of the audio can be. That's so programmes and commercials will conform to that same maximum audio level. However, that doesn't restrict the quietest or average audio level.

Ads are usually heavily compressed. Not in the sense of file compression, but dynamic range compression. The quietest parts are made louder so they are closer to the loudest parts (that is, there is less range between quiet and loud). This way they can have a louder overall sound without exceeding maximum peak levels.

It can be done, but it isn't easy.

Programmes, because they are longer and more subtle in their content, are never really compressed as heavily - meaning they sound "quieter."

So could the issue be dealt with, as Ms Curran demands? Mr Reeve replied:

For broadcasters, this is a very hard issue to deal with because their specification and measuring equipment are all intended to deal with excess peak audio. Measuring perceived loudness (and defining specifications to regulate it) is quite complex, but there are tools becoming available to help. 

UPDATE 1: Like an annoying ad, this story won't die. This just in from Peter Ennis, TVNZ's general manager of technology, on ads that are louder than programmes:

TVNZ has led an examination of this for some time and has already agreed a standard with the other free-to-air broadcasters in line with the International Telecommunications Union's IITU 1770 recommendation which has been widely adopted overseas by bodies such as the European Broadcasters Union. TVNZ has implemented this standard internally, and it is currently being rolled out at TV3 and Prime.

We are now in the final stages of agreeing a standard for digital file-based copy delivery [as opposed to cans of tape]. This pushes loudness standardisation further up the production chain.

So why do blaring ads persist? Ennis continues:

It's important to remember however that while these standards go some way towards reducing the perceived loudness differences between and within programme and advertising content it is unlikely that all differences will be eliminated, mainly because advertisers and TV creatives will continue to want to use dynamic range for effect.

UPDATE 2: A number of readers have noted this is something of a whiny first-world issue (and it is). But ... it's also got people to notice Labour's broadcasting policy (maybe, see link at right).

And it's worth noting that after a Democratic Congresswoman's four-year fight, the US government did pass the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (or CALM) in Decmeber last year.

It was followed by a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) notice of rulemaking, that broadcasters have until December 15 this year to comply with.

France has also moved to regulate blaring ads.