Concept · Licensing explainer
HEVC Patent Licensing in 2026, Explained for Engineering Teams
A neutral explainer for teams shipping HEVC: who collects, what changed in 2026, and the rough scale at which you should call legal. Engineering summary — not legal advice.
The pools
Who collects on HEVC
HEVC is encumbered by multiple patent pools plus independent holders. The two you will actually deal with are Access Advance (device + content pools) and Via LA (the MPEG-LA successor that also runs the H.264 pool). Some essential patents sit outside both.
What changed in 2026
The 2026 licensing cycle raised effective rates by roughly 25% across several access tiers — the headline most teams missed. Separately, content-distribution pools (Avanci Video, Access Advance's video pool) expanded their device coverage, so more devices are now "covered" — which shifts who pays and for what.
On the H.264 side, Via LA restructured into tiered annual fees (Tier 1 around $4.5M/year) that mostly matter for very large platforms.
The AV1 asterisk
AV1 is promoted as royalty-free, and the codec itself is — but Sisvel and others have asserted patents on AV1 implementations, and litigation outcomes remain in flux. "Free" is a design goal, not a guarantee.
When to call legal
A rough industry rule of thumb: once your service crosses roughly 100K monthly active users (or ships HEVC content to devices at scale), patent exposure stops being theoretical. Before that, most teams operate under their aggregator's or platform's licenses.
Your streaming platform, device vendor or CDN may already hold licenses that cover your use — check before paying anyone.
What this means for you
None of this makes HEVC unusable — it makes it a licensing decision. Budget for it once, document it, and get back to shipping.
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