Obviously artistic control of loudness is the ideal. A skilled mixer can make adjustments that keep everything audible while preserving reasonable dynamics. Top mixers understand that the vast majority of viewers do not have sophisticated sound systems and rely on the built-in speaker or speakers that are integrated into most every television set. This is the core audience--the ones that the advertisers count on watching. Driving these viewers away by making programs too dynamic and difficult to listen to is simply bad business.
Indeed there are metadata features such as DRC built into the Dolby Digital (AC-3) system, but it certainly seems that while appropriate for DVD, they simply do not do enough to protect against loudness shifts that occur even with properly matched dialog. Most broadcasters know that they must protect their viewers from being driven away. If their trust in the mix and the metadata system is damaged too many times, they may have no choice but to forego preserving the original content in order to keep viewers and thus ratings and thus income. As the DTV rollout has been taking some time, the stark reality of losing viewers due to audio issues may also be taking some time to develop, but it is definitely happening.
In NTSC, the FCC finally had to get involved with this exact issue in the 1980s and include rules (that are still on the books) to make it an offense to broadcast audio with large loudness variations. This resulted with the sale of many television audio dynamic range processors (some good and some misused); a corresponding drop in loudness problems; and an audio system that was (and is) not used to its potential. However, the majority of viewers stayed glued to their sets--until now.
It may be that as more stations simply have to get the audio consistent ASAP, the same thing might necessarily be on its way for DTV. It is possible to find audio processors that are far more advanced than their NTSC counterparts. It is possible to bridge the gap between pure metadata and pure audio processing and produce consistent audio that is still true to the original minus the annoying loudness shifts. It is also possible to simply apply heavy processing to everything.
To preserve the benefits of the excellent DTV audio system, all parties must act: mixers, networks, stations, cable and satellite operators. If it cannot be solved by improved processes and/or sophisticated processors that support the preservation of the original content, it will end up being done in an arguably less than ideal manner in the television set. This will mark the final end of creative control over television audio.
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