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Why do TV commercials come in louder than the show you are watching?

This is on a TV hooked to an outside antenna or rabbit ears.

Public Comments

1. to catch your attention and sell you their product.
2. To make you look quickly at the tv while their comercial is playing. Apparently it's suppose to cause people to remember their product and stuff, but I don't know if that's true.
3. I think TV commercials are automatically broadcast louder on all televisions. We have cable -- no outside antenna or rabbit ears and all of the commercials are considerably louder than the regular programming. I believe that they do this intentionally as many viewers get up to do chores, fix a snack, etc. during commercials and the folks (advertisers)who pay want us to, at least, hear their commercials.
4. the fact that you've noticed proves that it works. They do it so it will grab your attention and you will look and see what they are trying to sell to you. Another thing is that certain products play their commercials more frequently if they'd cater to the audience watching the show. For example, a Home Depot commercial for tools and stuff will play more often during a guy's movie than during a soap opera for women.
5. They know that during commercials most people get up to go use the bathroom or make a run for the kitchen. by upping the volume they know you will hear their commercial.
6. If you find out lets us all know why that is .
7. Because they're designed to WAKE YOU UP- if you've fallen asleep watching the show- so you can BUY whatever it is they're selling! Pretty clever- huh?! :) And it's like that on ALL TVs...
8. Its not actually louder, contrary to popular opinion. It just sounds louder due to the show you were watching went to 0db audio levels prior to the commercial. It's actually the same volume as the loudest parts of the show you were watching. Like the car chase scene, or the gun fight or whatever. If you put a measuring device (some would call it an oscilloscope, or o'scope) on the speakers, you would see that audio level doesn't actually increase peak levels, it's just that the human hearing is unable to record or memorize the peak levels of the loud parts of the program material. It's done this way on purpose to get your attention, if you need to ask "why", it's because the commercials pay for the programming, and they are the ones in control of what programmng you are receiving.
9. The industry "compresses" the audio to give an overall increase in volume to the sound without exceeding maximum limits. They reduce the loud parts and boost the low sections, that way they can jack everything up a couple of notches without worrying that the formerly excessive sharp peaks in volume will exceed allowable limits. They in effect "compress" the extremes together. It's done a lot today in cd engineering and results in a real loss in music richness and "dynamic range".