The Real Cost Of Licensing H.264: Pricing And Licensing Terms

Whenever StreamingMedia.com publishes an article on the subject of H.264, I get a lot of e-mails from readers saying that the licensing costs of H.264 are too expensive or are just too complex to even figure out. Those who sell proprietary codecs use the perception of H.264 licensing as a labyrinthian ordeal as an ideal marketing tool to complement the proprietary technology's "simple" license.

So what does H.264 cost to license? And is the licensing cost as complex to figure out as competitors make it out to be? To help clear up a lot of the confusion, StreamingMedia.com has just published an article by Tim Siglin about H.264 licensing costs breaking out the real numbers and how the different licenses are calculated. If you've always wanted to know the costs and licensing terms, this is a great article to read.

Comments

[shaun noll]

hey dan, would be really interesting to read a post about your thoughts on how internet/network neutrality will/would affect the CDNs? what if internet neutrality gets thrown under the bus how do you think this would affect the CDNs?

[jhm212]

I applaud Tim for taking the initiative to lay out the video IP terms!!
The 'standards' H.264 and VC-1 terms are what they are....laid out through 2010. There is no 'flexibility' in the contract and they are bound to it globally. It appears that 'litigation' over current terms could number....
'labyrinthian' I'll pass on, but certainly every aspect of 'write-once, view any-where' needs to be explored.
How many companies do you think pay the $4.25M cap for a 'standard' license??