Context: Access Advance’s Multi Codec Bridging Agreement (MCBA) allows licensees to pay what is effectively a reduced royalty rate for products that implement both the HEVC and VVC standards. Last year, Access Advance’s HEVC and VVC licensors agreed to align the royalty caps of the MCBA and the VVC Advance pool (July 22, 2025 ip fray article).
What’s new: Access Advance today announced a phased reduction in the effective royalty discount available under the MCBA for licensees that sign up to the agreement after January 1, 2027 (details below).
Direct impact: Existing licensees who are MCBA signatories will not be affected by the discount reductions. By posting a clear end-date for the current discount rate, Access Advance may see a slew of new sign-ups.
Wider ramifications:
- The phased reduction in the MCBA discount is one of several strategic moves made by Access Advance lately with the aim of generating momentum to secure royalty streams ahead of time.
- Established last year, its Video Distribution Patent (VDP) pool offers a single license covering multiple codec-related standards, potentially providing more optionality for certain types of implementers than typical standard-specific licenses (January 16, 2025 ip fray article).
- Also last year, Access Advance announced a royalty rate increase that came into effect in mid-2026 (January 27, 2026 ip fray article). The intervening months saw a number of licensees come on board in an apparent effort to secure discounted “early bird” rates, including Alibaba, Dahua Technology (July 2, 2026 ip fray article), Meta (July 3, 2026 ip fray article), Samsung, and Sharp (July 6, 2026 ip fray article).
The new MCBA discount rates are as follows:
- Up to 50% for licensees that join both the HEVC Advance and the VVC Advance pools and execute the MCBA on, or before, December 31, 2026.
- Up to 40% for those that join both pools and execute the MCBA between January 1, 2027 and June 30, 2027.
- Up to 25% for those that join both pools and execute the MCBA on, or after, July 1, 2027.
Current licensees to both pools that have already signed up to the MCBA will keep their existing discount. Royalty caps remain unchanged.
In a statement, Access Advance CEO Peter Moller said:
“For five years, the MCBA has given companies that build, or plan to build, products with both HEVC and VVC a single, lower-cost way to license the two codecs together… While the MCBA discount is being moderately reduced, it remains significant. As more products add VVC alongside HEVC, companies that have not yet joined both pools and signed the MCBA have until the end of the year to secure the current discount.”