California's New Law Keeps Streaming Ads at a Respectful Volume

Wed Oct 22 2025 02:11:31 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

A recent law in California aims to mitigate the annoyance of loud advertisements during streaming by ensuring they match the volume of the primary content. The legislation responds to public complaints and seeks to enhance the viewing experience for Californians.

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a law that requires streaming platforms to ensure that advertisements do not exceed the volume of the content being watched. This follows longstanding complaints from viewers about loud commercials disrupting their streaming experiences. While some in the entertainment industry expressed concern over implementation challenges, the law aims to protect the viewing experience for families and all viewers in the state.

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

The law, which states that adverts cannot be louder than the primary video content being watched, builds on a federal one that governs 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 lower 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.

The services were in their nascence 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 that require commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany, according to the bill.

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

This law, effective from July 1, 2026, prohibits video streaming services serving California consumers from transmitting commercial ads louder than the content being viewed.

State Senator Thomas Umberg, who introduced the bill, stated, This bill was inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who's finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work. Samantha is the daughter of Umberg's legislative director, Zach Keller, who shared his experience of a noisy ad waking his infant daughter during a show.

Initially, the Motion Picture Association and the Streaming Innovation Alliance, representing services like Disney and Netflix, opposed the bill, arguing they could not control volume settings on devices like broadcasters can. Streaming ads come from various sources, making it challenging to manage, as pointed out by MPA vice-president Melissa Patack.

The bill was later amended to include a legal provision barring individuals from suing streaming services for violations, leading both groups to adopt a neutral position on the revised bill, according to the Los Angeles Times.