Shhhh! New law bans loud ads on Netflix, Disney Plus, and other streaming services

Have you ever been startled by an overly loud advertisement on a streaming service? Those days will soon be over, if you live in California, at least. A new law will require commercials to keep the volume down on streaming services.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Senate Bill 576, introduced by Senator Thomas Umberg in February. The bill in question will regulate how loud an advertisement can be on streaming services, like Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime Video, and YouTube. Specifically, commercials will not be allowed to be louder than the primary video content being watched.

“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. “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.”

This bill builds on the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act that was passed in 2010. Previously, the act only applied to broadcast television stations and cable operators. With this new bill, the law will now include streaming services, effective July 1, 2026.

You may be wondering what triggered the creation of this bill. It appears that it was in response to a complaint from one of Umberg’s staff members about the rising volume of ads disrupting their child’s sleep. In a statement following the bill being signed into law, Senator Umberg said, “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.”

Considering that California tends to set the tone for the US entertainment industry, it’s possible that other states could follow California’s example.

Have you been bothered by overly loud ads while watching YouTube, Netflix, or some other streaming platform? Let us know by voting in the poll above.