California has adopted a new law to silence noisy advertisements on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and Prime Video, demanding that commercial volumes correspond to the audio levels of the content broadcast. California governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on Monday.
As of July 1, 2026, streaming services will no longer be authorized to “transmit audio of commercial advertisements stronger than video content that advertisements accompany”, according to the text of the bill.
“We have heard the Californians loud and clear, and what is clear is that they do not want advertisements to a stronger volume than that to which they previously listened to a program,” Governor Newsom said in a press release. “By signing SB 576, California reduces these drawbacks on streaming platforms, which were not previously subject to regulations on commercial volumes adopted by the congress in 2010.”
The legislation is inspired by the CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) law, which, in 2010, prohibited that the sound of television advertisements was broadcast stronger than the television program broadcast. With this new legislation, streaming services must comply with the same commercial volume regulations as traditional television channels in California.
Bill 576 of the Senate was written by the Senator of the State of California, Tom Umberg, who cited a complaint of his legislative director, Zach Keller, on the way in which the high volume of streaming advertisements awakened the newborn girl from Keller, Samantha.
“This bill was inspired by little Samantha and all the exhausted parents who finally managed to put their baby to sleep, to then see a resounding streaming destroying all this hard work,” Senator Thomas Umberg said in the press release. “The SB 576 provides an essential peace and tranquility to Californian households by ensuring that streaming advertisements are no noisier than the programs that we really want to watch.”
Given the influence of California in the entertainment world, this legislation could put pressure on streaming platforms to reduce noisy advertisements throughout the country.
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