To automatically listen to the sound in a way easy to recognize an exciting scene especially even when a mute circuit is operated due to the arrival of an incoming telephone call.

The sound controller for a television receiver is provide with an FM detection circuit 1, a sound low frequency circuit 2 connected to the circuit 1, a sound output circuit 3 connected to the circuit 2, a speaker 4 connected to the sound output circuit 3, a mute circuit 5 that is connected between the FM detection circuit 1 and the speaker 4 and is controlled by a remote controller or the like to mute a sound signal, and a signal level detection circuit 8 that is connected to an input terminal of the mute circuit 5 or a pre-stage of the mute circuit 5 to detect a level of the sound signal. When the signal level of the sound signal detected by the signal level detection circuit 8 is higher than a prescribed level, the mute circuit 5 is released to output the sound from the speaker 4.