"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,"
"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,"
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 576, banning video streaming services that serve California customers from airing commercial audio louder than the accompanying video content. The law takes effect July 1, 2026. State Sen. Thomas Umberg sponsored the bill after a baby named Samantha was awakened by a loud streaming ad. The law mirrors the federal Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act by requiring parity between commercial and program average volumes for streamed video. The 2010 CALM Act already mandates equal average volume for television commercials and a 2010 Harris poll found 86% believed commercials were louder than shows. The CALM Modernization Act was introduced in 2023 by a pair of Senate Democrats, including Sheldon Whitehouse.
Read at Fast Company
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