Licenses to use hevc video codec are getting cheaper

The developer behind hevc will significantly reduce the royalties that companies have to pay for using the video codec. In addition to lower rates, a limit is set on the amount that must be paid per year.

On its website, the HEVC Advance group has set out what the pricing structure for using the HEVC codec will look like from now on. Not only are the prices reduced, but providers of free online content no longer have to pay for a license. Furthermore, discounts of up to 50 percent on the license costs can be negotiated and price limits are set. This means that there is a maximum price per year in royalties, depending on the devices used or the company that takes out the license.

Companies that only stream content to mobile devices have to pay a maximum of 40 million dollars, about 37 million euros, annually for a license. For delivering content to home devices or 4K TVs, that amount is $20 million. Anyone who wants to take out a license for all these categories has to pay ‘only’ 60 million dollars. Public broadcasters do not have to pay anything for the use of the HEVC codec for TV broadcasts, just like commercial channels that earn their money from advertisements, not subscriptions.

The hevc codec, also called h265, is the successor to the popular h264 codec and is used for 4k video, among other things. The price drop is probably related to the fact that many companies believed that the HEVC Advance group was asking too much money for a license. That’s why an alliance of tech companies has started developing an alternative to hevc. It is likely that this development will continue.