Streaming services' obnoxiously loud ads become illegal on July 1 in California
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
California makes loud streaming ads illegal starting July 1, extending CALM Act rules.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 576 in October 2025, effective July 1, 2026, prohibiting streaming services from playing ads louder than accompanying content. Illinois passed a similar law with a July 2027 deadline. The law parallels the FCC's CALM Act for broadcast TV. Opponents including the Motion Picture Association and Streaming Innovation Alliance argued technical challenges like server-side ad insertion and varied output devices make compliance difficult. The FCC received over 1,700 complaints about loud TV commercials in 2024 alone.
What commenters are saying
Many commenters welcome the law, calling loud ads a long-overdue loophole. Some share workarounds: ad blockers, Revanced, self-hosted servers, or using stable volume toggles. A debate emerges over technical feasibility: one commenter calls industry complaints about varied devices a 'flat-out lie,' while another notes that different speakers and device-level compression genuinely affect perceived loudness. Several users describe YouTube's loud ad interruptions as especially irritating, with one detailing a personal ad-tolerance system that recently broke.