Shhh! California takes aim at loud streaming ads | usagoldmines.com

Had it up to here with commercials that crank the volume during your favorite streaming shows? Relief is on the way thanks to a new California law that seeks to dial down the intrusive ads. 

Signed on Monday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, SB 576 mandates that commercials broadcast by streaming services shouldn’t be any louder than the programs they’re accompanying. 

If the language of the new legislation sounds familiar, you might be thinking of Congress’s Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (or CALM) Act, which was passed in 2010. That law also sought to curb annoyingly loud commercial breaks, but it only applied to broadcast and cable TV operators, not streaming services. 

“We heard Californians loud and clear, and what’s clear is that they don’t want commercials at a volume any louder than the level at which they were previously enjoying a program,” said Newsom in a statement. “By signing SB 576, California is dialing down this inconvenience across streaming platforms, which had previously not been subject to commercial volume regulations passed by Congress in 2010.” 

Authored by state Senator Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana), who introduced the bill after loud streaming commercials had been waking the baby of his legislative director, SB 576 only applies to California. 

But as Politico notes, the new law could well become the national standard for streamers considering California’s “massive sway” in the industry. The volume caps for streaming ads will go into effect in July 2026, according to Politico. 

SB 576 arrives amid the growing popularity of ad-supported streaming plans, which offer a cheaper alternative to the ever-increasing price of ad-free streaming tiers.  

Netflix, for example, charges just $7.99 a month for its “Standard with ads” plan, versus a much pricier $24.99/month for its top-of-the-line Premium tier, which offers ad-free 4K HDR streaming. 

But as more and more streamers sign on for ad-supported streaming plans, advertisers are getting more aggressive about the volume levels during commercial breaks—so much so that the FCC issued a call for public comment in February following a spike in viewer complaints about too-loud ads.