California will prohibit streaming platforms from playing advertisements louder than content beginning July 1, 2026. Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 576 (SB 576) into law in October 2025.

SB 576 makes it illegal for any video streaming service to transmit commercial advertisement audio at a higher volume than the video content the advertisements accompany within California. This legislation aligns with existing regulations for broadcast, cable, and satellite television providers under the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which mandates that commercials maintain the same average volume as the programs they accompany.

The Motion Picture Association and the Streaming Innovation Alliance opposed SB 576. The Motion Picture Association includes streaming services such as Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime Video, and Paramount. Members of the Streaming Innovation Alliance include Netflix, Disney, Peacock, and Pluto TV.

These organizations argued that many streaming services were already attempting to manage advertisement loudness. They noted that advertisements delivered through server-side ad insertion can have inconsistent loudness compared to programs due to various encoding pipelines used by companies. The organizations also stated that streaming services must account for a wide range of output devices, including televisions, tablets, and phones.

In December 2025, TV Tech reported in a podcast interview that streaming providers will need to integrate file-based and, in some cases, real-time processing and loudness control into their server-side commercial insertion workflow. This requirement is similar to how they currently manage their primary programming. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received 1,700 complaints regarding commercial loudness in 2024, an increase from approximately 825 complaints in 2023 and around 750 complaints in 2022.

Why It Matters

California's new law extends existing regulations on advertisement volume to streaming services, which previously operated without such restrictions. The legislation addresses a common consumer complaint regarding loud commercials. FCC complaints about commercial loudness rose from 750 in 2022 to 825 in 2023 and 1,700 in 2024.

The opposition from industry groups like the Motion Picture Association and the Streaming Innovation Alliance points to the technical challenges involved in standardizing advertisement volumes across diverse streaming environments and playback devices. Streaming services now face the task of implementing new audio processing and loudness control measures for server-side ad insertion to comply with the 2026 deadline.