MPEG LA Announces HEVC Licensing; Annual Max Royalty Quadruples to $25M

Just got the press release; No content royalties (H.264 had them for subscriptions and PPV) and max annual royalty quadrupled (more or less) from $6.5 million to $25 million to start.

Here’s the pasted bit from the press release: full release attached below.

Decoder-Encoder Manufacturer Sublicenses

• HEVC products sold by a legal entity to end users
   o 0 – 100,000 units/year = no royalty (available to one legal entity in an affiliated group)
   o US $0.20 per unit after first 100,000 units each year
  o Maximum annual royalty payable by an enterprise (company and greater than 50% owned subsidiaries): initially starts at $25M (H.264 was $6.5 million)
• Includes right to make, use and sell
• Royalties are payable for HEVC products from May 1, 2013 forward

Other

• No separate royalties for HEVC content
• Vendors of semiconductor chips or other products that contain an HEVC encoder and/or decoder may pay HEVC royalties on behalf of their customer who is a licensee

About Jan Ozer

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I help streaming and video technology companies solve complex technical and market-facing problems in practical business terms. Engagements range from fixed-scope audits and codec strategy reviews to product testing and technical content that helps customers, prospects, and internal teams connect technical performance to business outcomes. I am a contributing editor to Streaming Media Magazine, writing about codecs and encoding tools. I have written multiple authoritative books on video encoding, including Video Encoding by the Numbers: Eliminate the Guesswork from your Streaming Video (https://amzn.to/3kV6R1j) and Learn to Produce Video with FFmpeg: In Thirty Minutes or Less (https://amzn.to/3ZJih7e). I have multiple courses relating to streaming media production, all available at https://bit.ly/slc_courses.

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