Turn it down. It’s too loud. Where’s the remote? You have it. I don’t have it. Why is it so loud?
We’ve all been there—streaming a show when a commercial suddenly blares at an ear-splitting volume. Now, a new bill making its way through the California Legislature aims to change that.
Senate Bill 576 would prohibit video streaming services that serve California consumers from airing commercial advertisements at audio levels louder than the primary video content.
The bill was authored by state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) who told CalMatters the inspiration came from a baby—Samantha Rose.
“He said his legislative director, Zach Keller, has an infant daughter named Samantha Rose. The baby had finally settled down to sleep and her parents, in turn, settled down to relax and watch a show when an ad came on so loud it woke the baby.”
The bill contends that consumers are increasingly subjected to loud, disruptive ads with no regulatory safeguards. “This bill enhances the viewing experience and protects individuals with hearing sensitivities—including seniors, children, and those with auditory processing disorders—from sudden and jarring noise spikes,” the bill states.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because similar legislation already exists at the federal level.
The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act was passed in 2010 after the Federal Communications Commission received more than 130,000 complaints—most about excessively loud commercials. But that law applied only to broadcast and cable TV.
Streaming services didn’t exist at the time and have since operated in a “loudness loophole.”
But times have changed. Umberg says 83% of U.S. households now use at least one streaming service, and ad-free streaming is becoming less common
“Many platforms have introduced tiered subscription models that require consumers to pay a premium to avoid commercials, bringing ad-supported viewing, and the loudness of those ads, back into focus for millions of users,” he argues.
While the bill appears to have strong support in the California State Legislature, it also faces opposition. Groups including the Motion Picture Association and the Streaming Innovation Alliance argue that streaming is fundamentally different from traditional broadcast and cable, and that federal standards shouldn’t be unilaterally applied to streaming platforms.
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