Guess I’ve got to move to California now…
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2026
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No need:
Given the Golden State’s massive sway in the entertainment industry, the new law may strong-arm streamers into shushing commercials nationwide.
I have my doubts. the ad markets are fairly regional and audio normalization at that scale is going to require a bit more processing power to do.
I do agree that normally what the state does trickles to everyone else but, in this case it's going to be more cost effective to only have the extra processing expense in CA, as they can't use the same audio normalized ads across the market.
Being said, if this catches on and it becomes a federal thing like how TV broadcast is, I wouldn't be sad that's for sure.
In this case, however, we're talking about streaming platforms, which are pretty much universal across state lines.
Advertisements on streaming platforms are not universal across state lines though, the ads on them are localized to your locations.
Adverts as a whole are very location based as locations differ in what types of ads are efficient in that area, what people want and like to see in CA vs what people want and like to see in MA for example are vastly different, and as such you will get different adverts.
There is no incentive for them to just normalize all adverts on their platform, as that will take up more processing power and time and as such more money to do. As such it's more likely they will just make a separate streaming pipeline that normalizes only ads in the CA pipeline and call it good.
Just sail the high seas for your favorite shows!
This is a good thing if it's implemented properly.
Explanation: A TV show or movie needs a lot of range in volume: car crashes are supposed to be louder than normal conversation etc.
A commercial can and usually does employ a technicque called compression to make all parts of it as loud as possible without distortion.
Now if the thus treated commercial is as loud as the loudest bits in the show/movie, it's still too loud.
It is a good thing, except broadcast television had the same implemented and they claimed it wasn’t louder than the programming when it was.
Get ready for loud shows.
Yeah we have a solution for that already.
It's called the volume knob.
I guess I’ll go back to my 90s habit of switching to mute when ads show.
They'll use the cable TV argument, they're not turning the volume up they're increasing the amplitude.
Yeah I mean there was a law passed for TV promising the same thing, and if you watch broadcast TV the commercials are still way louder.
Sometimes I forget folks have to deal with ads in streaming. Those were NOT the days 🏴☠️🦜 🌊
Weak half measure
It should be for any content with audio