California bans loud commercials on Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services

California has passed a new law aimed at quieting blaring advertisements on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video, requiring commercial volumes to match the audio levels of the content being streamed. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on Monday.

Starting July 1, 2026, streaming services won’t be allowed to “transmit the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the advertisements accompany,” according to the bill’s text.

“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,” Governor Newsom said in a press release. “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.”

The legislation is modeled after the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which in 2010 barred the audio of TV commercials from being broadcast louder than the TV program being aired. With this new legislation, streaming services must comply with the same commercial volume regulations as traditional TV broadcasters in California.

Senate Bill 576 was authored by California State Senator Tom Umberg, who cited a complaint from his legislative director, Zach Keller, about how the loud volume of streaming commercials was waking Keller’s newborn daughter, Samantha.

“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 in the press release. “SB 576 brings some much-needed peace and quiet to California households by making sure streaming ads aren’t louder than the shows we actually want to watch.”

Given California’s influence in the entertainment world, this legislation could pressure streaming platforms into cutting down on noisy commercials nationwide.