Dear ABC we are sick of the loud ads on your kids' channels!

Have you noticed that since the ABC started their addition digital children's television channels, they've started the same stupidity of really loud ads between the shows? It's hardly fair, but the kids regularly cop cries of "TURN IT DOWN!" from us. But they haven't actually turned it up...

As shouting at the television isn't seeming to work, I wrote to the ABC to complain about this:

We are sick of the higher volume of ads now on ABC channels. While we are familiar with this practice on commercial stations, until recently we've be able to rely of ABC to not do it.
Unfortunately this seems to have changed in recent months and now all ads on ABC channels are extremely loud.
Given the children watch so much of ABC 2 and 3, this is becoming a real problem.
Please reinstate a regular volume across your content.

To their credit, they replied. To their discredit, they've done nothing about it:

Thank you for your email.

I have contacted the ABC TV Presentation and Broadcast Engineering departments regarding your concerns about audio fluctuations, and they advise me that there are ongoing issues with volume control between programs and promotions (including voiceovers), which is especially apparent on ABC2 and ABC3. I can assure you this is not part of a deliberate marketing or promotional strategy.

In part this issue is due to the introduction of a centralised distribution broadcasting centre and the lack of audio compression on ABC2 and ABC3, which is otherwise afforded on ABC1. This means that particularly when going from soft audio, which is sometimes the case for end credits, and then moving to promotions, there is a marked difference. We apologise for this occurrence and I can advise your concerns have been made available to our engineers for their information. They are currently investigating the matter and attempting to identify an appropriate solution that fits within our available resources.

I hope this information is of assistance and thank you again for taking the time to write to the ABC.

Yours sincerely,

Kevin McAlinden
ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs