This new law solves a longstanding sound design problem: ads that are way too loud
Finally, ads can’t be louder than the show you’re watching (if you’re in California, that is).
Hunter Schwarz
If you’ve ever
been startled while watching a show on a streaming service that was
interrupted by an unreasonably loud commercial and thought to yourself,
that should be illegal, soon it will be. At least in California.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed a bipartisan bill into law that bans video streaming services
that serve customers in the state from airing audio of commercial
advertisements that are louder than the video content it accompanies. It
goes into effect July 1, 2026.
“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,” Newsom said in a statement about the legislation, SB 576.
The
bill was introduced because of a baby. California state Sen. Thomas
Umberg, an Orange County Democrat, said he sponsored the bill because of
the daughter of his legislative director, a baby named Samantha who was
finally put to bed one night only to be woken up by a much louder
commercial.
“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,” Umberg said in a statement.
The California law is patterned after federal law, extending the rules of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act
to streamers in the state. The 2010 CALM Act was passed by Congress and
mandates commercials have the same average volume as the programs they
accompany, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The CALM Act was also meeting a real demand. A 2010 Harris poll found 86% of respondents
believed commercials were louder than shows. The law only applies to TV
commercials, though, not commercials on streaming platforms, radio, or
internet. The CALM Modernization Act, which would have extended the
rules to streamers, was introduced in 2023 by a pair of Senate
Democrats, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Tammy Duckworth of
Illinois, but it never got a vote.
Even
if your state passes similar legislation, be warned: the commercials
may still sound louder, and there’s a reason why. That’s because even if
commercials can’t be louder on average than the programs they
accompany, they are trying to be as loud as they legally can
to capture your attention in the 30 short seconds or less they have
you. In other words, while a TV show might have its loud moments for
effect here and there throughout a program, it’s not yelling at you the
whole time like a commercial might.
“Most TV commercials are created to be loud simply so you can hear the advertisement and get your attention,” Sony says on a support page for handling loud commercials.
“[I]f you are watching a program with soft dialog, when the program
cuts to a commercial you will most likely hear a boost or fluctuation in
the volume.”
California’s new law will be welcome news to parents
across the Golden State, but if you’re really worried about waking your
baby during commercial breaks in a Hulu binge session, subtitles could
be your best bet.
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