US lawmakers who objected to loud TV commercials now want quieter ads on streaming services such as Hulu, Peacock and Paramount+.

Representative Anna Eshoo and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Tuesday introduced legislation requiring that ads on streaming services be no louder than regular programming. The measure would build on a 2010 law that targeted TV commercials.

“We’re updating the legislation for the benefit of consumers who are tired of diving for the mute button at every commercial break,” Eshoo, a California Democrat, said in an emailed news release.

Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said “new ways to watch TV shouldn’t mean new ways for corporations to blare ads at outrageously high volumes”.

Loud ads persist on traditional TV, according to a memo distributed by Eshoo’s staff. The Federal Communications Commission told Eshoo in 2020 that no service had been held to account. Consumer complaints numbered in the thousands per year, according to the agency.

The bill introduced Tuesday is known as the CALM Modernization Act, short for Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Modernization Act.

 - Bloomberg