March 2019 Summaries

Sisvel International S.A., an intellectual property licensing company, has announced two new patent pools for the VP9 and AV1 video codecs. These pools cover both consumer display devices and non-display devices housing hardware decoders for either VP9 or AV1. While both AV1 and VP9 are marketed as "Royalty Free" by the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) and Google, Sisvel disagrees with this claim. The patent pool is formed of patents licensed from five large companies with a history in video codec development. Device manufacturers building devices with AV1 or VP9 decoders are required to pay licensing fees starting at €0.126 for display-capable devices and descending based on volume, while non-display device pricing starts at €0.042. There is no cap on the amount of royalties paid for usage.

The article discusses the feasibility of building a premium video experience using only royalty-free video streaming technologies, focusing on libre codecs and containers. It highlights that while we can already build a compelling video experience using only libre technologies, there's still some way to go to build experiences which are on par with patent-encumbered MPEG technologies dominating the marketplace today. The author emphasizes the importance of open technologies in reducing costs, complexity, and data usage, as well as increasing adoption of libre technologies on the internet.