PUBLIC NOTICE
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th St., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20554
News Media Information 202 / 418-0500
Internet: http://www.fcc.gov
TTY: 1-888-835-5322
DA 11-1255
July 26, 2011
ATSC Approves Successor 
to Its “A/85 Recommended Practice”
MB Docket No. 11-93
By this Public Notice, the Media Bureau announces that the Advanced Television Systems 
Committee, Inc. (“ATSC”) yesterday approved a successor document to its A/85 Recommended Practice 
(“ATSC A/85 RP”).  In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to implement the Commercial 
Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (“CALM”) Act, the Commission directed the Bureau to issue a 
Public Notice announcing the ATSC’s approval of any successor to the ATSC A/85 RP.1 The ATSC has 
published this document on its website at http://www.atsc.org/cms/standards/a_85-2011a.pdf.2 This 
document adds an Annex K titled “Requirements for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness of 
Commercial Advertising in Digital Television When Using Non-AC-3 Audio Codecs.”3
On May 27, 2011, the Commission released the NPRM, which sought public comment on its 
proposed rules to implement the CALM Act.  The CALM Act directs the Commission to incorporate by 
reference and make mandatory the ATSC A/85 RP, “and any successor thereto, approved by the 
Advanced Television Systems Committee, only insofar as such recommended practice concerns the 
transmission of commercial advertisements by a television broadcast station, cable operator, or other 
multichannel video programming distributor.”4 By statute, the Commission must adopt final rules no 
later than December 15, 2011. 
On July 18, 2011, in anticipation of this successor document to the ATSC A/85 RP and in 
response to a request by the ATSC, the Media Bureau extended the reply comment filing deadline in this 
proceeding until August 1, 2011 “to allow interested parties an opportunity to review and provide 
comments on the successor document to the ATSC A/85 RP.”5 This document, for which we extended 
the reply period, is now available.
For additional information, contact Shabnam Javid, Shabnam.Javid@fcc.gov, of the Engineering 
Division, Media Bureau at (202) 418-2672.  Direct press inquiries to Janice Wise at (202) 418-8165.
- FCC -
  
1 Implementation of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act; MB Docket No. 11-93, 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 11-84 at ¶ 13 (rel. May 27, 2010) (“NPRM”).
2 See ATSC Press Release titled, “ATSC Expands Loudness Management Techniques with A/85 Annex K” (Jul. 26, 
2011).
3 See ATSC A/85: “ATSC Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness 
for Digital Television,” (July 25, 2011) (“ATSC A/85 RP”).
4 The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (“CALM”) Act, § 2(a), Pub. L. No. 111-311, 124 Stat. 3294 
(2010) (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 621).
5 See Implementation of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act; MB Docket No. 11-93, 
Order, DA 11-1205 at ¶ 4 (MB rel. Jul. 18, 2011).