Streaming viewers in California who have grown tired of reaching for the remote every time an ad break sends volume levels spiking will soon get relief written into state law. Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 576 on October 6, 2025, making California the first state to extend federal broadcast loudness rules to video streaming platforms. The law takes effect July 1, 2026, and will require services such as Netflix and Hulu to keep commercial audio at or below the volume of the content surrounding it.
How SB 576 extends broadcast ad rules to streaming platforms
Federal law has restricted loud commercials on cable and broadcast television for more than a decade through the CALM Act, which directs the FCC to enforce audio normalization standards. Streaming services, however, have operated outside that framework. SB 576 closes the gap by anchoring its compliance standard directly to FCC loudness rules adopted under the CALM Act. After July 1, 2026, any video streaming service that reaches California consumers will be prohibited from transmitting commercial ad audio louder than the video content it accompanies.
The practical effect is straightforward: ad-supported tiers on platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, and others will need to normalize loudness levels so that a commercial break does not blast at a higher decibel range than the show or movie a viewer was watching. Senator Tom Umberg, the bill’s author, pointed to persistent viewer complaints about jarring volume jumps as the driving force behind the legislation. “Californians deserve to watch their favorite shows without being jolted by blaring ads,” Governor Newsom said in a statement announcing his signature on the new streaming law.
Whether services will apply loudness normalization only to California streams or roll it out across their entire user base is an open question. Because streaming platforms deliver content over the internet rather than through geographically segmented broadcast signals, building California-specific audio pipelines would be technically awkward and expensive. The simpler path would be to normalize ad audio uniformly for all users, which would effectively extend the California rule nationwide without formal federal action. That outcome could create a measurable test case: if ad recall or completion rates shift in markets where normalization was not previously applied, advertisers and platforms would have hard data on whether quieter ads perform differently.
Legislative path and the CALM Act connection
SB 576 moved through the California legislature over the spring and summer of 2025. The Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee held a hearing on the bill on June 24, examining how existing FCC rules already limit loud ads on traditional television and why streaming had been left out. Committee analysis described a growing volume of viewer complaints tied to streaming ad loudness, a trend that gave Umberg’s office a concrete policy rationale.
The chaptered version of the law, Stats. 2025, Ch. 336, does not create a new loudness measurement standard from scratch. Instead, it ties compliance to the same technical framework the FCC uses for broadcast and cable, which relies on the ITU-R BS.1770 algorithm for measuring average loudness over the duration of a program or ad segment. That design choice lowers the technical barrier for streaming services that already produce content meeting broadcast specs but raises questions about enforcement. The Federal Communications Commission oversees CALM Act compliance for traditional television, yet SB 576 will be enforced at the state level, requiring California regulators to interpret federal engineering standards in the context of internet-delivered video.
Under the statute, a “video streaming service” includes subscription services, ad-supported platforms, and hybrid offerings that deliver professionally produced video over the internet to California users. Purely user-generated content platforms are not the primary target, but any service that sells or inserts commercial spots into long-form video will need to ensure that ad loudness does not exceed the integrated loudness of the associated content. Because the law mirrors the CALM Act’s structure, streaming providers can look to more than a decade of FCC guidance and industry practice when designing compliance systems.
Compliance, enforcement, and what viewers can expect
California agencies will be responsible for handling complaints from viewers who believe a streaming ad violated the loudness limits. The expectation is that regulators will use a mix of consumer reports, technical audits, and cooperation with platforms to bring services into line before resorting to penalties. For viewers, the most noticeable change should be fewer jarring jumps in volume when a movie, series, or live event cuts to a commercial break.
Streaming companies, meanwhile, will need to audit their ad supply chains. Many platforms rely on third-party ad servers and dynamic insertion systems that stitch commercials into streams on the fly. To comply with SB 576, those systems must either reject non-compliant ads or automatically adjust their loudness to match the surrounding program material. Smaller services that lack in-house engineering teams may lean on vendors that already support CALM-compliant workflows for broadcast customers.
California often serves as a bellwether for technology and consumer-protection policy, and SB 576 fits that pattern. Other states could choose to adopt similar rules, or federal lawmakers could look to the California model as they consider whether the CALM Act should explicitly cover streaming. For now, Californians can track implementation through official state government channels, while the broader U.S. streaming audience watches to see whether quieter ads in one state end up reshaping the experience nationwide.
