[mljoe]

There has never been anything quite like the patent situation around HEVC. Using HEVC legally requires signing four different license agreements at the minumum[1]. The license agreements with Technicolor and Velos Media are actually secret. This includes their fees. The other two licenses (MPEG LA and HEVC Advance) are public. They are far more expensive then H.264 taken individually, even at current promotional rates.

As a result the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) was formed by major hardware and software companies. AOM is developing an alternative to HEVC. AOM has almost all hardware manufacturers of any significance as members.

[1]: Other essential patent holders who have not officially licensed their patents include AT&T, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, and Cisco. They may elect to license their patents unilaterally, which adds additional uncertainty to HEVC.

[mercer]

I feel there should be some long-form article about this floating around, and if there isn't one, there should be!