Streaming services’ obnoxiously loud ads become illegal on July 1 in California
Streaming services’ obnoxiously loud ads become illegal on July 1 in California
7月1日起，加州将禁止流媒体服务播放音量过大的广告
On July 1, it will be illegal for streaming platforms to play ads louder than the content being watched in California. As The Hollywood Reporter highlighted this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill (SB 576) in October 2025 that prohibits any video streaming service from transmitting the “audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the advertisements accompany” in the state. 从7月1日起，流媒体平台在加州播放广告时，其音量不得超过正在观看的内容，否则即为违法。正如《好莱坞报道》本周所强调的那样，加州州长加文·纽森（Gavin Newsom）于2025年10月签署了一项法案（SB 576），禁止任何视频流媒体服务在该州传输“音量高于所附视频内容的商业广告音频”。
The law brings some parity between streaming services and broadcast, cable, and satellite TV providers, which, under The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, can only play commercials at “the same average volume as the programs they accompany,” the FCC says. 该法律使流媒体服务与广播、有线和卫星电视提供商处于同等地位。根据美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）的说法，根据《商业广告音量缓解法案》（CALM Act），这些传统电视提供商只能以“与所附节目相同的平均音量”播放广告。
We haven’t seen any streaming services explain how they will comply with the California law or if they will apply the volume adjustments to US streams outside of California. Although streaming providers could opt to only apply volume adjustments to customers that they detect as being in California, it’s reasonable to expect companies to apply these changes elsewhere. As it stands, streaming services will already have to apply the ad loudness requirements to streams in Illinois by July 1, 2027, per a bill passed this month. 目前尚未有流媒体服务说明他们将如何遵守加州法律，或者是否会将音量调整措施推广到加州以外的美国地区。虽然流媒体提供商可以选择仅对检测到位于加州的用户进行音量调整，但可以预见，这些公司很可能会在其他地区也实施同样的调整。事实上，根据本月通过的一项法案，流媒体服务到2027年7月1日也必须在伊利诺伊州的流媒体播放中执行广告音量要求。
The Motion Picture Association, which includes Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime Video, and Paramount, and the Streaming Innovation Alliance, which includes Netflix, Disney, Peacock, and Pluto TV, opposed the bill. The groups argued that “many” streaming services were already trying to manage the “loudness of advertisements that come from server-side ad insertion that may be inconsistent with the loudness of the programs,” per a state Assembly analysis (PDF) from September 2025. Server-side ads can have differing volumes due to companies using various encoding pipelines. 包括Netflix、迪士尼、亚马逊Prime Video和派拉蒙在内的美国电影协会，以及包括Netflix、迪士尼、Peacock和Pluto TV在内的流媒体创新联盟均对该法案表示反对。根据2025年9月的一份州议会分析报告（PDF），这些组织辩称，“许多”流媒体服务已经在努力管理“因服务器端广告插入而导致的广告音量与节目音量不一致的问题”。由于各公司使用不同的编码流程，服务器端广告的音量可能会有所不同。
Additionally, as the opposing groups previously pointed out, streaming services must contend with a broad range of output devices, including TVs, tablets, and phones. Reporting on how streaming services might follow the California law, trade publication TV Tech in December reported: “Streaming providers will need to integrate file-based and, in some cases, real-time processing and loudness control into their server-side commercial insertion workflow, just as they currently do for their primary programming.” 此外，正如反对团体此前指出的那样，流媒体服务还必须应对各种输出设备，包括电视、平板电脑和手机。行业刊物《TV Tech》在12月报道了流媒体服务可能如何遵守加州法律时指出：“流媒体提供商将需要把基于文件的处理，以及在某些情况下的实时处理和音量控制集成到其服务器端广告插入工作流程中，就像他们目前对主要节目所做的那样。”
The obstacles in managing the loudness of ads are underscored when considering the dissatisfaction that remains among broadcast, cable, and satellite viewers. The FCC said it received “at least” 1,700 complaints about this in 2024, about 825 in 2023, and approximately 750 in 2022. 考虑到广播、有线和卫星电视观众中依然存在的不满情绪，管理广告音量所面临的障碍愈发凸显。FCC表示，2024年收到了“至少”1700起相关投诉，2023年约为825起，2022年约为750起。