Founded April 2015 (2015-04) Products Licenses | Headquarters Boston, United States Website www.hevcadvance.com | |
Industry Licensing Administration | ||
HEVC Advance is a patent licensing pool aimed at the HEVC video standard, in addition to the existing MPEG LA pool.
Contents
History
On March 26, 2015, HEVC Advance announced their HEVC license which covers 500 essential patents.
On July 22, 2015, HEVC Advance announced their initial HEVC patent license program, in which royalty rates depended on the country of sale, type of device, HEVC profile, HEVC extensions, and HEVC optional features. The HEVC Advance license had a maximum royalty rate of US$2.60 per device for Region 1 countries and a content royalty rate of 0.5% of the revenue generated from HEVC video services. Region 1 countries in the HEVC Advance license include the United States, Canada, European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and others. Region 2 countries were countries not listed in the Region 1 country list. The first HEVC Advance license program had a maximum royalty rate of US$1.30 per device for Region 2 countries and a content royalty rate of 0.5% of the revenue generated from applicable HEVC video services. The HEVC Advance device license applied to a decoder, encoder, or combination decoder/encoder.
The proposed licensing terms were negatively received from the industry. The demand for a portion of gross revenue was specifically derided, with the CTO of MLB Advanced Media stating that no mainstream company would accept those terms.
Following the feedback from the initial terms, and the launch of the competing Alliance for Open Media, HEVC Advance announced a revised license program on 18 December 2015. The changes included a reduction in device royalty rates, reduced royalty rates for distribution of HEVC content paid for by end users on a title by title basis or on a subscription basis, and a waiving of royalties on content that is free to end users, including ad supported content. Annual royalties for a company were capped at US$40 million for devices, US$5 million for content, and US$2 million for optional features.
On November 22, 2016, HEVC Advance announced a major initiative, revising their policy to allow software implementations of HEVC to be distributed directly to consumer mobile devices and personal computers royalty free, without requiring a patent license.
Current HEVC Advance Licensors
Six companies currently hold patents in the HEVC patent pool:
Technicolor SA was initially a member, but announced in February 2016 that they had withdrawn from the patent pool and would be directly licensing their HEVC patents.