You know the ritual. The characters murmur, so you turn it up. Then something explodes, the dog leaves the room, and you lunge for the remote. You repeat this until the credits roll, or until you give up and switch on the subtitles.

It is not your ears. Much of the blame lies in a long-running muddle over how television sound is measured. This summer, the body that writes America's broadcast audio rulebook set it straight.

In July the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) completed what it calls the first comprehensive update since 2013 to A/85, its recommended practice for establishing and maintaining audio loudness. Mixonline reported the release on 15 July. According to re-recording mixer Jon Greasley, CAS, the revision passed on 8 July.

Two ways to measure a mix

Since the US CALM Act took effect in 2012, networks have given mixers spec sheets with a target loudness, measured in LKFS using the ITU's BS.1770 method. The real question is what you point the meter at.

One option is the "Full Program": the whole mix, including the explosions and the score. The other is an "anchor element", which in almost any drama means dialogue. You measure the dialogue and keep it consistent, and everything else can be louder or softer around it.

Writing in CAS Quarterly, in an article republished by Production Expert, Greasley and co-author Jamie Hardt, CAS, argue that dialogue "is and has always been the anchor, and A/85 has never said otherwise". They explain that the trouble began when BS.1770 was refined to stop advertisers gaming the meters. Many distributors wrongly concluded that programmes should be measured differently too.

The consequence is simple. Under Full Program measurement, a big cinematic show has a fixed loudness "budget". If the battle scenes spend it, the dialogue must be pushed down by 6 dB, 8 dB or more, Greasley writes.

Dune, The Last of Us and a Hulu stand-off

Greasley recalls mixing a sci-fi series for Hulu around the time of the Disney acquisition. His team was sent Disney+'s −27 LKFS dialogue-anchored spec. After mixing four episodes, they were told Hulu's spec was actually −24 LKFS Full Program. The showrunner weighed in, and Hulu let them deliver to the dialogue-gated (that is, dialogue-anchored) spec.

Marc Fishman, CAS, faced the same fight with HBO on The Last of Us. On shows like that, Greasley says, dialogue levels can shift by 6 to 10 dB between episodes. Ron Bartlett ran into it on the nearfield home mixes of Dune. The HBO Max version pushed dialogue "considerably lower" than the Netflix version, and Greasley says gaps like this can exceed 10 dB.

Fishman and Bartlett raised concerns with Warner Bros. Kim Waugh then arranged a meeting with Tony Pilkington and Miles DelHoyo. "HBO listened," Greasley writes, and the company updated its delivery spec.

From a meeting room to the standard

The pressure then became organised. Fishman, Hardt and fellow members formed the Cinema Audio Society's Industry Technical Standards Committee, and Greasley later succeeded Fishman as chair. Separately, Jim Starzynski had invited Greasley to contribute to an Audio Engineering Society report on dialogue intelligibility. Starzynski is NBCUniversal's chief audio engineer and chairs ATSC's S42 audio group.

The CAS wrote to ATSC asking for a revision. ATSC agreed, and Greasley represented the society in S42 meetings. As well as reaffirming dialogue as the anchor, the revised A/85 adds an annex on streaming and a loudness and true-peak quick reference. It also addresses "edge cases" such as films with little dialogue, including Flow.

ATSC president Madeleine Noland said the update "gives the industry practical, contemporary guidance that reflects today's production and distribution workflows".

What SB576 does, and what it doesn't

Governor Gavin Newsom signed California's SB576 in October 2025. From 1 July 2026, it bars video streaming services that serve California consumers from transmitting adverts louder than the content they accompany. It extends the idea behind the federal CALM Act, which covered only broadcasters and cable operators, and it creates no private right of action.

Strictly speaking, this is a law about commercials, in one state. Greasley's view is that streamers will not want to master content once for California and again for the other 49 states, so in practice the law may pull the whole US streaming market towards broadcast rules. He also says Illinois has passed a similar bill. His prediction is plausible, but it remains a prediction.

What it means

For mixers: dialogue-anchored delivery now has an up-to-date standard behind it. When a spec sheet demands Full Program measurement for long-form drama, there is a document to point to.

For viewers: change will come gradually, as platforms revise their specs. But the direction is right: steadier dialogue, fewer lunges for the remote, and adverts that no longer shout.

A standards body listened to the people who actually do the work. That is worth celebrating.