What California’s Streaming Loudness Regulation Means For Broadcasters And Ad Tech

California’s new loudness regulations (SB 576) will require ads within streaming content to match the volume of the primary program. This is much more than a compliance update. It reveals a far wider structural issue, while also signalling that the era of treating streaming as an exception to broadcast rules is ending.

For viewers, the issue is simple. Sudden spikes in volume during ad breaks remain one of the most persistent frustrations in streaming. For broadcasters, it’s a lot more complicated — and it runs deep within the supply chain.

Streaming’s CALM Moment Needs Real-World Collaboration

Broadcasters have operated under the CALM Act for more than a decade, guided by the ATSC A/85 recommended practice. Streaming services, despite delivering increasingly premium content, have not been held to the same framework. As ad-supported tiers spread and FAST platforms scaled rapidly, audio control often took a back seat to monetization and distribution growth. SB 576 closes that loophole. It places responsibility squarely on the entity that delivers the ad to California viewers, regardless of where that ad originated.

Loudness inconsistency in streaming is not caused by a single failure point. It is the by-product of fragmentation. In streaming, ads pass through multiple companies and systems before they reach the viewer. Each stage introduces variability in encoding, metadata handling and loudness targets. No single company controls the full journey from ad creation to playback, which means no one can ensure loudness is managed properly end-to-end.

With client-side ad insertion, the ad is selected and played directly on the viewer’s device. That gives platforms very little opportunity to adjust the audio before it is heard. With server-side insertion, ads are stitched into the stream before it reaches the viewer, enabling greater control. However, ads can still arrive at the last moment, produced to different loudness levels and with inconsistent or missing metadata, making reliable correction more difficult than it sounds.

Passing through whatever an ad server provides will no longer be defensible. As California’s new rules come into force, compliance must be built into the delivery chain itself. The scale of streaming ads makes manual checks impractical, requiring automated software that can normalise audio at scale before assets enter circulation. Platforms and ad-tech vendors will need explicit loudness requirements written into partner agreements, with enforcement at ingest rather than after complaints.

Broadcasters extending their brands into streaming platforms and FAST channels must mirror the standards upheld in linear workflows by embedding ITU-R BS.1770 loudness measurement tools into their architecture. That means verifying loudness at ingest, preserving metadata through transcoding, validating output before distribution and either rejecting non-compliant assets or applying file-based loudness correction before they reach the viewer.

A Signal Beyond California

California often leads where others follow. States with strong consumer-protection traditions will watch closely. Federal regulators may revisit how CALM principles apply in a digital-first environment. International markets operating under EBU R128 and similar standards will push for greater harmonization.

More importantly, consumer expectations are rising. Audiences accustomed to seamless interfaces and premium picture quality will not tolerate disruptive audio. Platforms that invest in automated normalization tools, metadata correction, and stronger cross-partner collaboration will be in a much better position. Those that continue to rely on legacy workflows or inconsistent ad-tech partners may find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Fixing loud commercials is not merely about turning down the volume in one state. By solving the issue for California, the industry has an opportunity to solve it everywhere without duplicating cost, workflow or infrastructure. What begins as state-level compliance could ultimately become a universal baseline for better streaming experiences. It requires broadcasters, streaming platforms and ad-tech providers to align around shared standards, shared measurement and shared responsibility.

Costa Nikols is executive team strategy adviser, media & entertainment of Telos Alliance.

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