California prohibits strong streaming platform ads

The new law in California is aimed at stopping ads from pumping the volume of streaming services.

The law that says that ads cannot be stronger than the main video content that is watched up to the federal, which sets the volume of advertisements to broadcast TV and cable stations to include streaming platforms.

Opponents, including the influential entertainment industry, claimed it would be difficult to apply, as streaming services did not have the same control over advertising as radio and television operators.

California is home to Netflix and Hulu streaming platforms, and Amazon produces many of its main video shows and movies there.

In 2010, the Congress adopted the law to mitigate the volume of commercial advertising (calm) to gather the volume on television and radio stations.

The law that California governor Gavin Newm signed on Monday forces of streaming services to comply with the federal law of the Obama era.

The services were at their level when the Law of Calm was passed, but since then they have become a major option for viewing many households in the United States.

“We have heard the Californians strongly and clearly, and what is clear is that they do not want volume ads that are stronger than the level at which they previously enjoyed a program,” Newsom said when signing the bill.

The existing federal law requires the Federal Regulator, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), to develop regulations that require ads to have the same average as the programs that accompany the bill.

In February, the FCC said it had received thousands of complaints about strong ads in the last few years – many about streaming services.

This law, which enters into force on and after July 1, 2026, prohibits a video streaming service that serves consumers in the country to transmit the audio to commercial ads, stronger than the video content, which people watch.

“This bill is inspired by a baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who has finally received a baby to sleep, just to have a fearsome streaming AD, cancel all this hard work,” said State Senator Thomas Humberg, who presented the bill.

Samantha is the daughter of Humberg legislative director Zack Keller, who told him about a noisy advertisement that awakens his infant daughter while he was watching a streaming show.

However, the Cinema and Innovation Alliance Association, which are streaming services, including Disney and Netflix, initially opposed the bill.

They said they were unable to control the volume settings of the devices on which their content was offered, unlike the broadcast and cable television suppliers.

Product ads come from several different sources and cannot necessarily or practically be controlled, said MPA Vice President on state governments Melissa Patak in June.

Later, the bill was amended by a legal provision that would prohibit individuals or private parties from judging streaming services for violation of the law.

Both groups remained neutral on amended bill as a result, according to Los Angeles Times.