Governor Gavin Newsom has signed SB 576, a new law that limits the volume of commercials on streaming services so they cannot be louder than the main content. The bill, authored by Senator Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana), extends regulations similar to those in the federal Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act of 2010, which previously applied only to broadcast television and cable operators.
Streaming platforms have grown significantly in recent years, but were not covered under existing commercial volume rules. With this legislation, California aims to address complaints from viewers about sudden increases in volume during advertisements while watching shows online.
“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. 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,” Governor Newsom said.
Senator Umberg explained the motivation behind the bill: “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. 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.”
The full text of SB 576 can be found at http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
