California Enforces New Law to Silence Loud Ads During Streaming

Mon Oct 20 2025 20:50:04 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

In a move to enhance viewer experience, California has passed legislation mandating that advertisements on streaming services cannot exceed the volume of the content being viewed, aligning with federal standards.

California has enacted a law to prevent streaming advertisements from being louder than the shows or movies they accompany, addressing viewer complaints and building on federal regulations established under the CALM Act. Effective July 1, 2026, the law complements existing regulations for traditional TV and radio, indicating a significant shift in how streaming platforms will manage audio for commercials.

A new law in California is aimed at stopping advertisements from pumping up the volume on streaming services.

The law, which states adverts cannot be louder than the primary video content being watched, builds on a federal one that regulates the volume of ads on broadcast TV and cable stations to include streaming platforms.

Opponents, including the influential entertainment industry, had argued it would be difficult to implement because streaming services do not have the same control over ad volume as broadcasters.

California is home to the headquarters of streaming platforms Netflix and Hulu, and Amazon produces many of its Prime Video shows and movies there.

In 2010, Congress passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act to dial down the volume on TV and radio stations. The law that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed on Monday forces streaming services to comply with the Obama-era federal law too.

The services were in their infancy when the CALM Act was passed but have since become the primary viewing option in many US households.

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, Newsom said upon signing the bill.

Existing federal law requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to develop regulations requiring commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany, according to the bill.

In February, the FCC stated it had received thousands of complaints about loud commercials over the past several years - many regarding streaming services.

This law, effective July 1, 2026, prohibits a video streaming service that serves consumers in the state from transmitting the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content being watched.

This bill was inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who has finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work, said State Senator Thomas Umberg, who introduced the bill. Samantha is the daughter of Umberg's legislative director, who recounted that a noisy ad woke up his infant daughter while watching a streaming show.

The Motion Picture Association and the Streaming Innovation Alliance, which represent streaming services including Disney and Netflix, initially opposed the bill. They claimed that they do not have the ability to control volume settings on the devices offering their content, unlike broadcast and cable TV providers.

Streaming ads originate from various sources and cannot necessarily or practically be controlled, stated Melissa Patack, vice-president of state government affairs for the MPA, in June.

The bill was later amended to include a legal provision barring individuals or private parties from suing streaming services for violations of the law. Both groups remained neutral on the newly amended bill.