How California's streaming platform commercial volume limits work
Starting July 2026, California law requires streaming services to keep ad volume at or below the shows they interrupt—closing a gap federal rules left open.
California's SB 576 requires streaming platforms to keep commercial volume at or below the volume of the shows and movies they interrupt. Governor Newsom signed the bill into law on October 6, 2025. The requirement takes effect July 1, 2026, and applies to any video streaming service that serves California consumers. It mirrors federal standards that have governed broadcast and cable television since 2012, extending those protections to the streaming platforms that now dominate how Californians watch video.
The regulatory gap SB 576 closes
Congress passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM Act) in 2010, directing the Federal Communications Commission to establish rules requiring broadcast and cable television stations, as well as satellite TV and other multichannel video providers, to use standardized loudness measurement tools. The rules keep commercial audio at the same average level as the programs they accompany. These standards have applied to traditional television since December 13, 2012, with the FCC relying on consumer complaints to monitor compliance.
Streaming services operated entirely outside this framework. When Congress passed the CALM Act, Netflix and YouTube did not yet dominate how Americans watch video. The law was written for an era of scheduled programming and cable boxes. The FCC does not regulate streaming platforms' ad volume, leaving viewers of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, YouTube, and other ad-supported services without the protections that broadcast viewers have enjoyed for over a decade.
This gap between regulatory frameworks has real consequences for viewers. Loud commercials startle viewers, wake sleeping children and pets, and are particularly disruptive for people with hearing sensitivities or auditory processing disorders. Seniors and people with hearing loss often experience ads at volumes that exceed what they perceive from normal programming. The sudden volume spike interrupts the viewing experience in ways that differ from the gradual commercial breaks of scheduled television.
What the law requires
SB 576 prohibits video streaming services from transmitting the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the advertisements accompany. The requirement takes effect July 1, 2026, giving platforms nine months from signing to adjust their systems. The law aligns streaming services with the same technical standard already used for traditional television: the ATSC A/85 Recommended Practice, which measures audio loudness using the ITU-R BS.1770 method. This international standard measures loudness in a way designed to reflect how human ears perceive volume, accounting for differences in pitch and frequency rather than raw decibel levels.
The law explicitly states it does not create a private right of action, meaning individual consumers cannot sue streaming services for violations.
Technical implementation and costs
Streaming platforms cannot manually check every ad for volume compliance. The sheer scale makes this impossible. Platforms ingest thousands of advertisements daily from multiple sources: direct relationships with large advertisers, ad networks, and programmatic advertising systems that automatically buy and place ads at scale. Each must meet the loudness standard.
Compliance requires implementing audio-normalization tools or other loudness-control systems similar to those already used in broadcast television. Audio normalization is the technical process of applying a constant amount of gain to an audio recording to bring the amplitude to a target level. Loudness normalization specifically adjusts the recording based on perceived loudness rather than raw decibel measurement, accounting for how human ears actually hear volume.
Platforms must establish loudness measurement capabilities at multiple points in the workflow: when ads enter the system, during processing when files are converted to different formats for different devices and screen sizes, and before ads reach viewers in California. The metadata that tracks an ad's loudness must travel through transcoding—the process of converting video from one format to another—and be verified at output.
The compliance burden is substantial, particularly for smaller platforms and ad-tech companies. Compliance could be costly for these participants to retrofit their systems for dynamic loudness measurement. Ad servers, demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, and programmatic marketplaces may need to enforce loudness normalization before ads enter circulation. Non-compliant audio is increasingly being flagged at the ingestion stage, which means paused campaigns and re-delivery costs.
Some platforms may choose to apply the standard nationwide rather than implement California-specific ad delivery, which would simplify operations but requires tracking customer location—raising privacy questions about how platforms identify which state viewers are in.
Which platforms are affected
The law applies to any video streaming service with paying or ad-supported viewers in California. Hulu, which offers an ad-supported tier, and YouTube, which runs ads on most content, will need to ensure compliance. Platforms without ads, like Netflix's premium ad-free tier, are unaffected. Amazon Prime Video's ad-supported option, Disney+ with ads, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Max, Peacock, and any other video streaming service with commercial inventory must comply. Even smaller streaming platforms serving California viewers fall under the requirement.
“Compliance could be costly for smaller platforms and ad-tech companies that must retrofit their systems for dynamic loudness measurement.”
Why this matters and where regulation heads next
Loud commercials are a widespread and persistent complaint. Unlike broadcast and cable television, streaming is on-demand and personal. A viewer watching on a computer, tablet, or television in a bedroom may have no way to adjust their speakers in advance. The complaint that prompted the bill came from a staffer's experience: an infant repeatedly awakened by loud streaming ads.
SB 576 signals a broader regulatory shift toward treating streaming services like traditional broadcasters. The federal CALM Modernization Act, which would extend similar rules nationwide to streaming services, has stalled in Congress. But industry observers note that California often moves first on media and technology regulation. SB 576 is already influencing other states—Illinois lawmakers are developing comparable legislation. This suggests a pattern: California establishes a standard, the market adapts, and other states follow, eventually creating pressure for federal standards.
Timeline and compliance readiness
Governor Newsom signed SB 576 on October 6, 2025. The law takes effect July 1, 2026. Streaming platforms have nine months to audit their ad delivery systems, integrate loudness measurement tools into their pipelines, and adjust processes to ensure compliance. Ads that exceed the standard after July 1 would face enforcement action by California regulators, though the bill text does not identify a specific state agency responsible for oversight.
Industry observers expect most major platforms to comply. The technical standards are well-established—broadcasters and cable operators have been using them for over a decade. Compliance tools exist and are available. The primary challenge is operational: integrating loudness checks into complex, automated ad delivery systems that handle millions of transactions daily and source ads from hundreds of third-party networks and exchanges. For larger platforms with sophisticated ad operations, this is an engineering problem, not an insurmountable one. For smaller platforms and ad-tech companies, the retrofit cost may be significant.
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