Streaming: California bans loud adverts
Loud adverts are banned on US television. California is following suit for video streaming.
At last the baby is asleep, but then he is woken from his slumber by a loud streaming advert. The father is angry. But he has connections.
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Commercials that are significantly louder than the preceding content program are annoying, can be harmful to health, and can wake up third parties. In North America, loud adverts on television have therefore been banned since 2012: in the USA by a law known as the CALM Act, and in Canada by a regulation issued by the regulatory authority CRTC. These rules do not apply to streaming services, which is why some of them continue to use the hated method. California now prohibits them from doing so.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a corresponding amendment to the Californian Business and Professions Code on Monday. It comes into force on 1 July 2026 and is exceptionally brief. The new section 22776 summarily declares the regulation issued by the US regulatory authority FCC based on the CALM Act (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) to be applicable to all video streaming services that expose Californians to advertising. And the FCC regulation in turn declares Recommendation A/85 of the international standardization body ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) to be legally binding. ATSC A/85 RP regulates the technical parameters.
California is the most populous state in the USA. As a result, regulations often have an impact beyond the state's borders when companies shy away from the effort of setting up different versions of their offerings for different parts of the country. Accordingly, US consumers outside California hope that they too will no longer be bothered by loud adverts from July 2026. However, the streaming industry was able to push through a dilution: Those affected cannot defend themselves; only the California Attorney General's Office can enforce the new regulation.
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The amendment stems from the torment of an employee of a Californian senator. The staffer had finally rocked his daughter named Samantha to sleep when she was woken up by overly loud adverts from a streaming service. “This bill is inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who has finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a screaming streaming advert undo all their hard work,” reports the senator, Thomas Umberg. Why California does not ban loud adverts for audio streamers remains an open question.
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