California’s Governor Newsom signs law to stop ads louder than streamed content

California Governor Gavin Newsom on October 6 signed a law aimed at bringing down the volume of ads that play far more loudly than the TV show or film that a person is streaming.

Newsom signed SB 576 by Senator Thomas Umberg, which builds on the U.S. Congress’ Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act passed in 2010.

“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,” said Senator Thomas Umberg.

California’s new law applies to streaming services while previous legislation applied to broadcast television stations and cable operators. 

“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. By signing SB 576, California is dialing down this inconvenience across streaming platforms, which had previously not been subject to commercial volume regulations passed by Congress in 2010,” stated Newsom in a post on his website on October 6.