Multichannel video programming distributors and TV stations keep seeking narrow FCC rules on what they...

can’t adjust the “dialnorm” settings for TV ads, which the legislation seeks to keep at about the same sound level as regular programming, “in real time.” The commission should offer an “expedited waiver process” for such companies, said a slide from an alliance meeting with Chief Bill Lake and other front-office Media Bureau staffers (http://xrl.us/bmgwq5). Members of the group include the NTCA and Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecom Companies. TV stations need to rely on the act’s safe harbor provisions for all commercials they show, the NAB said executives told Lake and other top bureau officials (http://xrl.us/bmgwrd). The association sought “flexibility” for small TV stations and a “blanket waiver” of the effective date of the rules for those broadcasters that are small businesses. “Stations can and do rely on certifications from program providers that they control the loudness level of commercials and program content in conformance with practices in ATSC A/85 (and communicate that level to stations so that it can be properly set),” the NAB said. “We urged the FCC to recognize that reliance on such certifications was appropriate and consistent with commercially reasonable practices.” Stations don’t routinely measure the loudness level of all audio from “upstream providers” when it’s encoded into an AC-3 digital stream, and it’s “not practical to do so for all programs,” the association said in a follow-up meeting with some bureau officials: “Stations therefore do not know in real time if there is a deviation in terms of measured loudness."