As of July 1, 2026, a law regulating the volume of ads on streaming platforms is in force in California. In short, commercials can no longer play at a higher sound level than the surrounding editorial content. As a result, brands that buy ad inventory on platforms like Hulu, Peacock or YouTube Premium, and reach US audiences, need to check that their creative assets comply.
However, the impact isn't limited to American companies. Many Italian mid-market brands and SMEs run digital campaigns aimed at the US market, often relying on agencies or trading desks that handle programmatic buying. As a result, responsibility for compliance also falls on audio produced in Italy. At SHM Studio, we monitor these regulatory developments to help clients review their digital advertising strategies.
In short: if you have active campaigns on streaming platforms aimed at the United States, act now by checking the LKFS/LUFS levels of your spots and updating your creative briefs. Finally, this regulation likely signals a regulatory trend that will spread to Europe in the coming years.
What the new California law on streaming ads requires
On July 1, 2026, a rule governing the sound volume of ads broadcast on streaming platforms came into force in California. The law, discussed by the trade press in recent weeks, as reported by TechCrunch on June 28, 2026, requires that the sound level of ads not exceed that of the surrounding editorial content. In particular, the reference benchmark is the LKFS standard (Loudness, K-weighted, relative to Full Scale), already adopted by US broadcast television through the CALM Act of 2010.
However, the scope now extends to on-demand streaming. So platforms like Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, YouTube Premium and other services with ad inventory are directly affected. In addition, the rule applies to ads delivered to users living in California, regardless of the advertiser's country of origin.
The technical mechanism: LKFS, LUFS and audio normalization
To understand the operational impact, it helps to clarify how it works technically. The LKFS standard (a practical equivalent of the LUFS unit, Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) measures the perceived loudness of an audio file over a period of time. US broadcast television has long used a target of -24 LKFS as the reference for programs. As a result, ads must fall within the same range.
So an ad mastered at -14 LUFS, a common level in digital productions optimized for social platforms, would be non-compliant if delivered on a regulated streaming service. Likewise, audio compressed aggressively to sound more
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