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goalieskates
Premium Member
join:2004-09-12
land of big

goalieskates

Premium Member

Is there any way to block via media?

via media is apparently some advertising company that places ads instead of whatever ads the channels are showing.

I'm no fan of advertising in general, but this outfit really takes the cake. They have volume issues - to the point that I've seen them wake a sleeping baby by blasting their commercials 5 or 6 times louder than the channel being watched. Their timing is sloppy, cutting in on an already playing ad. Sometimes they cut in on the show itself; other times they just send a series of annoying (and high volume) pops.

They appear to work through the cable box, since we've had no problems with tvs connected directly without one.

This all reflects very badly on WOW. We pay enough for service without having to put up with these jerks degrading our service. While I get what they're trying to do, it's obvious they're not ready for prime time. There has to be a way to block such a poor product. Any ideas?

bdnhsv
join:2012-01-20
Huntsville, AL

bdnhsv

Member

VIA Media is the company WOW uses to sell all of their cross channel space (the local ad's for cable channels) in all of their markets. The ads they are inserting are done at the local headend and you won't be able to block/forgo them (short of recording all your TV shows and fast forwarding through the commercials). My suggestion would be call your local WOW office and give them some specific examples of channel/time/ad, etc in question and they should be able to take a look at the volume levels and make adjustments.

RootWyrm
join:2011-05-09

RootWyrm

Member

Indeed, contact customer service or your local headend. If they refuse to investigate or fail to repair within 3-5 days, contact the FCC via this link.

Excessively loud commercials are unlawful under the CALM Act. The regulations were recently updated to bring commercial volume further in line with surrounding programming. WOW is required by law to investigate any trend or pattern of complaints.

Multiple commercials in the fashion you have described is a pattern which must be investigated and repaired. It is possible it's an equipment fault on a modulator, it's also possible their "partner" is deliberately violating CALM and they are unaware. They are not required to perform spot-checks and cannot be required to purchase equipment if they obtain a hardship waiver. But they are still held responsible and must repair or mitigate, or they will be considered to be in violation and subject to fines.