The FCC issued an order Wednesday implementing procedural...

The FCC issued an order Wednesday implementing procedural updates to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act’s method for calculating the loudness of commercials (http://bit.ly/1mbhxgv). The changes, as expected (CD May 30 p16), are based on updates to the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s recommended practices, which updated the algorithm used to calculate loudness to account for broadcasts that had long periods of relative quiet to compensate for brief increases in volume, the order said. “It is our hope that these changes will result in a modest decrease in the perceived loudness of certain commercials,” the FCC said. Stations and pay TV providers will have to adhere to the new standards starting June 4, 2015, but are allowed to begin doing so early, the order said.