Ads are some of the most annoying things to encounter when you're watching your favorite TV shows or YouTube channels, yet people in California might just have been granted a reprieve after the state introduces a brand new law.
There was a brief period in the internet when video ads were a rarity, as while pop ups and banner images plagued many a website, it was bliss in retrospect to not have your YouTube sessions interrupted every 10 seconds.
Now, users have to contend with ads that can often stretch beyond a minute on YouTube, and the once ad-free haven of streaming services has become the very thing it sought to replace.
However, a new law introduced in California does do something to combat that rise, although don't expect it to get rid of adverts altogether — it might just instead make them a little less annoying.
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As reported by The Verge, a new law signed in by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday known as 'Bill 576' introduces measures that force adverts to be at the same volume level as the content that's being plagued.
Anyone who has ever watched anything on a streaming service or YouTube will be well aware of the jump scare that you're often greeted with when an ad starts playing, especially if you've had to raise the volume to deal with the often terrible audio mixing of a film or TV show.
This bill, initially introduced by state senator Tom Umberg, aims to remove that frustration in a world now dominated by streaming services, meaning that you can continue watching in peace even if that still includes the adverts themselves.
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Umberg asserted in a statement following the law's passing that he was inspired by "every exhausted parent who's finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work."
The worst part about the noisy ads is that they are already technically banned following the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which was enforced at federal level, only this had one glaring weakness: it only applies to TV, and skips over streaming services and other video platforms.
Considering the fact that most people now tend to watch their TV shows on platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney+, it's high time that similar measures were introduced and applied to the internet world.
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"By signing SB 576, California is dialing down this inconvenience across streaming platforms, which had previously not been subject to commercial volume regulations passed by Congress in 2010," Governor Newsom declared, so if loud ads are the bane of your existence then a move to California might be on the cards.