California is turning down the volume on streamers. Yesterday, in an effort to get streaming services to shut off that godforsaken racket, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed bill SB 576 into law, restricting streamers from airing commercials that are louder than the program being watched. Essentially, the bill, co-sponsored by Senator Thomas Umberg, applies the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM) of 2010 to streaming services.
“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. “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 bill arrives several years after streamers, such as Netflix, entered the advertising game. Now that streamers have exited the austerity phase of their chokehold on subscribers—banning password sharing and affordable subscription plans—many users who like to scroll through dinner have opted for ad-supported tiers. In May, Netflix reported that its ad-based options had 94 million monthly active users, many of whom are likely experiencing hearing loss and have no idea why.
Loud commercials are one of the few bipartisan issues left in American politics. Though the White House and Newsom have spent the year in a shitposting race to the bottom, they have found common ground in disenfranchising and endangering LGBTQ+ people and making life even more unbearable for the unhoused. Now they can break bread over eardrum-bursting Skyrizi ads. Earlier this year, the Trump FCC began investigating the high-volume advertisements. In recent years, TV networks have sidestepped CALM regulations by increasing the volume on shows, thus allowing for louder commercials. It’s been a self-destructive cycle. Non-commercial content got louder and therefore less coherent, leading to an increase in viewers watching with subtitles. But at least those Nugenix commercials arrive with crystal clarity.
Senator Umberg also released a statement, dedicating the bill to “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.” We salute you, baby Samantha. Enjoy your rest.
