We’ve all been through it: trying to fall asleep with a film on, putting the baby to sleep and finally enjoying some you TV time, or playing background noise while you work. All is well, until commercials come on – and somehow the volume doubles. It’s quite frustrating feeling like you don’t have control over your own devices, but this is finally about to change.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is passing a first-of-its-kind law to address this issue. Senate Bill 576 builds on Congress’ Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which already required broadcast, satellite, and cable TV providers to make sure that commercials aren’t louder than the program. This didn’t include streaming services.
A change for streaming services
When singing the bill, Newsom said: “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.”
Following this change, streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Prime will be prohibited from playing commercials louder than the shows and films they stream. Opponents claim that this would be difficult to implement, because streaming services don’t have the same control over ad volume as broadcasters.
The regulation will come into effect on July 1, 2026.