NAB to FCC: Online Video Streamers Causing Loud Commercials

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2025 – The National Association of Broadcasters has a message for FCC Chairman Brendan Carr: Please remain CALM

NAB filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday in which the association noted that broadcasters remain in compliance with the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act.

The majority of consumer complaints about advertisement volume, the association said, stemmed from streaming services providing news, sports and entertainment programming over broadband networks. 

The CALM Act, which ensures that commercial advertisements are not louder than the accompanying programming, does not regulate such streaming services.

In its comments, NAB asserted that streaming services are to blame for excessively loud advertisements and that no new FCC regulations need to be applied to TV stations as a result.

Moreover, NAB also emphasized the limited scope of the CALM Act. The association noted that the act does not authorize the FCC to make new rules or impose more burdensome compliance measures outside of those outlined previously.

NAB’s stance put it at odds with Carr, who noted an increase in customer complaints about advertising volume and directed the FCC to launch a proceeding to examine how the FCC’s rules are working. 

“If there's one thing that TV viewers hate more than annoying commercials, it would be loud, annoying commercials,” Carr said at the agency’s Feb. 27 open meeting.

The association’s pushback on any expansion of the CALM Act comes at nearly the same time as its push for the FCC to remove what it called outdated regulations regarding TV and radio station ownership rules using Carr’s wide-ranging deregulatory framework titled ‘Delete, Delete, Delete.’