I decided to, what we would say in the good ol’ days, ‘tune in’ to CBC’s web cast (actually, it looked like a rebroadcast of NASA’s feed, but anyway) of Chris Hadfield’s departure from the International Space Station (ISS). As you can tell from my previous post Cmdr. Hadfield’s Twitter feeds and YouTube videos have been, simply, AWESOME!. So when I decided to catch the broadcast my ear’s were practically blasted off due to the loud commercials at the start of the broadcast! I have also noticed that the same thing happened when listening to archived shows. In some of the archived shows it was worse – and I didn’t think that that was possible: some commercials are lower than the main program and others much, much louder! ARRGGGG!
The CRTC mandated around mid-2012 that:
Effective September 1, 2012, Canadian broadcasters and television service providers (e.g., cable, satellite, and IPTV providers) must follow international standards[1] for measuring and controlling digital television signals, and must ensure that TV commercials are broadcast at a similar volume to programs.
This doesn’t apply to Internet broadcasts (other than IPTV) but it should! Anyway, this annoyed me enough that I’ve registered my annoyance with CBC. Here is the complaint I sent by web form to them on 2013 May 13:
Folks – We know that the CRTC has mandated that the volume levels of commercials must be lowered (http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/g3.htm) to follow international standards. While Internet broadcasts are not included in the CRTC ruling why have you very obviously set commercial levels much greater than program contenct on the Web? I have noticed this on both live broadcasts (e.g. Farewell and hatch closing LIVE – http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ID/2129383292/ on 2013 May 13) but also archived shows such as the fifth estate, Market Place, etc.
This is extremely annoying and distracting.
Thanks,
Mike
Let’s see what response I get, if any!
