It's been a frustrating past year for streaming subscribers as Netflix, Crunchyroll, and scores of other platforms have made ad-supported tiers the new normal. It seems the state of California has also had enough of it, as a new law signed by the governor will bar streaming platforms from airing ads. Here's how it affects you.
Ads aren't going away, but they'll be quieter
The American state of California is aiming for one of streaming's most universally hated experiences. A new law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last year and taking effect July 1, requires streaming platforms operating in the region to match ad volume to the content playing alongside it.
You should be able to set your volume once and leave it there through an entire viewing session. If you're outside the region, you're still at the mercy of your streaming platforms.
Federal law has required the moderation of traditional TV broadcasters and cable operators for years, but streaming was never included. The bill that eventually made it a reality was introduced by Democratic Senator Tom Umberg.
His reason is almost comical. He took the decision after his legislative director told him a loud streaming ad had woken his daughter. He had been trying to wind down while watching a show late at night, only for a blaring ad to undo the work put into pacifying baby Samantha to sleep.
Umberg put it plainly to The Hollywood Reporter that “If they can find a way to boost the volume, they can find a way to not boost the volume.”
It's a quality of life issue more than anything else, and Umberg is right about that. There is not much a user can do on their end outside of quickly grabbing or fumbling for the TV remote to turn the volume down.
Streaming giants aren't backing down without a fight
The Motion Picture Association and the Streaming Innovation Alliance, which represent platforms including Netflix, Disney, Prime Video, Paramount, Peacock, and Pluto TV, have opposed the new law.
Their argument is that many platforms were already voluntarily working to normalize ad volume, and the technical reality of server-side ad insertion makes enforcement complicated.
Audio loudness is measured in Loudness Units relative to Full Scale (LUFS). The lower the number, the quieter the audio. US broadcast TV is regulated to -24 LUFS under the CALM Act of 2012, but an ad submitted by an advertiser might be eight units louder at -16 LUFS. It may be dramatically more aggressive than the show you were watching.
Streaming giants may normalize it through an audio processing before serving it to you. But at any given moment, millions of concurrent streams are each triggering independent ad auctions pulling from hundreds of different advertisers with different encoding standards.
Building and maintaining normalization for every ad in real time across the same volume is computationally expensive. At the same time, pushing the process may increase risks of audio glitches, sync issues, or stream interruptions. So far, there has been no direct response from Newsom to the pushback.
