Oh thank goodness: ATSC updated its rules on TV advertising volume limits to include streaming ads

Streamers now included in ATSC loudness guidelines for advertising
Advertisements should not be louder than the programs preceding or following them.
California Law Leads to U.S.-Wide Changes

For almost as long as there have been commercials on television, advertisers have tried to make them as loud as possible through various technological tricks. After many years of increasingly loud advertising, the United States introduced volume limits for cable, satellite and broadcast television, but the legislation did not apply to streamers – until now.

ATSC, the broadcast standards body, has released a major revision to its digital television loudness guidelines. And this version applies to streamers as well as broadcast and cable.

The document is entitled A/85 Recommended Practice: Techniques for establishing and maintaining audio volume for digital television. And although this is a technical document, the summary is simple: STREAMERS, STOP YELLING.

What are the rules about loud ads?

The legislation was passed in the early 2010s due to a war on advertising loudness: studio tools like compressors and maximizers can increase the perceived loudness of audio, so advertisers have turned everything up to 11 to really capture your attention.

When the FCC’s Consumer Call Center began reporting major complaints in 2002, loud advertisements were one of the most common reasons for calls.

In the United States, there are two key pieces of legislation regarding advertising volume. The first is the United States’ Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act for short. This came into effect in 2012 and requires commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany. It requires television stations, cable operators and satellite television providers to implement Recommended Practice A/85. Nonprofits are not covered, but political ads are.

However, streamers are not covered by this legislation, but we live in a world where not only do all major streamers have ad-supported tiers, but today’s TVs and streaming sticks also offer many ad-supported free linear TV streaming (FAST) channels.

In 2015, California passed SB 576 to include streaming in its volume reduction rules. This legislation took effect this month, July 2026, and applies to any service to consumers in the state. The ATSC revised version of the A/85 effectively broadcasts this nationally.

The advice is not just a list of “not to do” items. It recommends best practices for audio measurement, monitoring, production, metadata, dynamic range control and volume management so that television services can be consistent across multiple platforms and viewers do not receive a different audio experience depending on where they receive their broadcasts from. If you’re in California, you should already be hearing the benefits.

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