Bulgaria's parliament is scheduled to vote in the autumn on recently tabled rules on television adverts, which often appear louder than the preceding programs.

After hundreds of complaints from viewers about this, the broadcasting watchdog - Bulgaria's Council for Electronic Media (SEM) - is determined to lay down the law and make a difference.

Advertisements must not be excessively noisy or strident, says the proposal the media watchdog has sent to the parliamentary committee on media affairs.

Should the proposal be accepted, the maximum subjective loudness of advertisements will be consistent and in line with the maximum loudness of programs and junction material.

The concrete parameters are not known yet.

Bulgaria's current legislation lacks existing guidelines on this issue and leaves it to the broadcasters to use a subjective loudness meter.

People complain they have to reach for the remote for a pre-emptive strike every time an ad break comes. They have the volume set and suddenly it's the ad break and the noise level is ratcheted up.

It's the hard of hearing and elderly people who are most affronted by noisy ads.

Experts explain that people who are hard of hearing tend to lose the ability to detect high-pitched sounds, with the result that low-pitched sounds can swamp the sound of speech.

So when a loud advert comes on unexpectedly, the low-pitched sounds in the commercial, usually the music, are amplified and distorted.

Advertising agencies say that the irritating hike in the volume is unintentional and due to the subjective loudness meter of the audience.