HTML5: Up and Running

Licensing Issues with H.264 Video

Before we continue, I need to point out that there is a cost to encoding your videos twice. That is, in addition to the obvious cost—that you have to encode your videos twice, which takes more computers and more time than just doing it once—there’s another very real cost associated with H.264 video: licensing fees.

Remember when I first explained H.264 video (see H.264), and I mentioned that the video codec was patent-encumbered and licensing was brokered by the MPEG LA consortium? That turns out to be kind of important. To understand why it’s important, I direct you to the H.264 Licensing Labyrinth:^[6]

MPEG LA splits the H.264 license portfolio into two sublicenses: one for manufacturers of encoders or decoders and the other for distributors of content. [...]

The sublicense on the distribution side gets further split out to four key subcategories, two of which (subscription and title-by-title purchase or paid use) are tied to whether the end user pays directly for video services, and two of which (“free” television and Internet broadcast) are tied to remuneration from sources other than the end viewer. [...]

The licensing fee for “free” television is based on one of two royalty options. The first is a one-time payment of $2,500 per AVC transmission encoder, which covers one AVC encoder “used by or on behalf of a Licensee in transmitting AVC video to the End User,” who will decode and view it. If you’re wondering whether this is a double charge, the ...