Oh for sure, I hear you divine totally. You're right. Me, I was just trying to be funny with my 'American way' comment. I do know what you mean though, even here in NZ I've experience similar things.

My honest answer though, as to why they'd blast the TV like that would be that they probably weren't even aware that it was loud. And I bet you at some point in the day someone would've said 'hey turn that effing TV down it's loud.' Or something like that. So I'd put it down down to lack of awareness really.