Avanci Tries To Bring Patent Harmony to Streaming With New Video Tech Licensing Pool

Daniel Frankel
·1 min read
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Dallas-based Avanci, which specializes in assembling collections of essential patents for things like 4G and 5G in-car mobile internet, as well as ATSC 3.0 broadcast, and distributing them on a singular affordable platform, is trying to tame the wild licensing dynamics of video streaming.

Avanci Video will encompass the most widely used video technologies, including AV1, H.265 (HEVC), H.266 (VVC), MPEG-DASH, and VP9, and it will launch with more than 25 licensors.

“Avanci Video will enable internet streaming companies to predictably adopt and utilize the latest technologies to provide high-resolution content, deliver reliable and seamless experiences for their subscribers, and reduce the financial, energy, and material costs of running their operations,“ Avanci Video senior VP Luke McLeroy said. “We invite companies that provide internet streaming services or that own patents essential to video standards to contact us to discuss our licensing platform.”

As streaming companies expand globally, managing tech licensing across regions and countries has become expensive and challenging.

Just last month, Netflix was banned by a court in Munich, Germany from using HEVC following a complaint by Broadcom.

For industry players, however, Avanci patent platforms aren't necessarily a magic bullet. For example, the firm introduced a collection of essential ATSC 3.0 patents for Avanci Broadcast earlier this year, charging licensees $3 for the platform.

However, after Korean smart TV maker LG said it was being charged $6.75 per unit to license ATSC 3.0 patents from Constellation Designs, which doesn't participate in the Avanci Broadcast platform, it stopped integrating ATSC 3.0 tuners into its sets.