California's ban on louder streaming ads takes effect July 1

A California law prohibiting streaming services from airing ads “louder than the video content” they accompany is set to take effect on Wednesday, July 1. Similar volume restrictions already apply to broadcast and cable TV commercials under existing legislation; the new rule brings that same loudness standard to streaming platforms.

Streaming services have not disclosed how they plan to comply, according to Ars Technica. The volume limitation currently applies only within California, but it seems likely that any resulting changes would roll out more broadly, especially with a similar bill set to take effect in Illinois next year.

State Senator Thomas Umberg, who sponsored the bill when it passed in 2025, said it was inspired by “every exhausted parent who’s finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work.”

The bill drew opposition from industry groups including the Motion Picture Association of America (the US film and TV studio trade group) and the Streaming Innovation Alliance, a streaming-industry trade group. Both argued that streaming companies were already working to address the issue, and noted that any fix has to account for a range of playback devices — TVs, tablets, and phones.

Why it matters

Though the volume cap applies only in California for now, a similar law set to take effect in Illinois next year makes it more likely that streaming services will roll out the same fix everywhere rather than build state-by-state compliance.