By Kevin Mack, President, Via Licensing Alliance
As streaming cements itself as the primary engine of global entertainment, the industry’s focus is shifting. What once were framed as “content wars” are increasingly giving way to deeper questions about the intellectual property that underpins streaming itself. The IP that enables streaming technologies has moved from the background to the forefront, both as a central topic of industry conversation and as a focal point in litigation and licensing activity across the IP ecosystem.
That shift is unsurprising given the scale that streaming has now achieved. Global video streaming revenues have grown to approximately $175 billion annually, surpassing the combined revenues of the recorded music and theatrical film industries and rivaling the size of the entire global video game market.
Streaming is no longer an emerging distribution model or an incremental revenue stream; it is one of the world’s most significant entertainment businesses. With that scale comes a renewed spotlight on the technologies that made it possible in the first place.
The ubiquity of streaming did not happen by accident. It is the product of decades of sustained investment in research and development. Patentees who contributed to these foundational technologies are not seeking compensation as a mere transactional “fee”, but as part of a larger reinvestment cycle. That cycle is what funds continued advances in data efficiency and video fidelity, which remain essential as consumer expectations and technical demands continue to rise.
Simply put, the value being generated by streaming today is built on an extraordinary accumulation of technological innovation. Ensuring that those behind these foundational technologies are properly compensated is essential to sustaining the ecosystem that continues to drive global entertainment and content consumption. In point of fact, not doing so would be unfair to the patentees and innovators who make possible the streaming experience we enjoy today. Longer term, it also risks leading to an environment of underinvestment and fragmentation that would put a drag on innovation in the streaming space.
Importantly, the compensation sought for these IP rights remains highly reasonable when viewed in context. Relative to the substantial and ongoing value that standardized video technologies deliver to streaming platforms and businesses, licensing costs are modest compared with content creation and other operational budgets and represent a fair and reasonable return on innovation.
Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also known as H.264, is widely regarded as the first video compression standard efficient enough to make large-scale internet streaming practical. Its combination of efficiency, quality, and network friendliness is why AVC became the foundation for early video-on-demand platforms, and later, mass-market streaming services, effectively enabling streaming video as we know it today. Even as the streaming ecosystem continues to evolve toward newer technologies, AVC remains prevalent in the global streaming infrastructure, estimated to underpin roughly 80% of the global streaming stack.
Licensing has played a critical role in that success. Via Licensing Alliance’s AVC licensing program is widely adopted, with virtually all standard-essential patent (SEP) holders participating. The pool’s transparent, published rate structure has brought clarity and consistency to the market, reducing friction for implementers while ensuring that contributors are compensated in a predictable and efficient manner. As a true one-stop shop, the program promotes transparency, levels the playing field, and drives licensing efficiencies on a global scale.
As streaming matures, it is also entering an era of what can best be described as “layered innovation”. In this model, universally accepted standards such as AVC function as a foundational layer—providing global interoperability, legal certainty, and a stable technical anchor. Companies can layer specialized, AI-driven, or high-performance technologies on top of that foundation. Standards make that layering possible by establishing common ground from which innovation can accelerate.
Taken together, these dynamics underscore a simple but often overlooked principle. As streaming has scaled into one of the world’s largest entertainment industries, the IP that enabled that transformation remains essential infrastructure.
Fair compensation for the innovators behind those technologies is not a legacy concern or a backward-looking exercise. Rather, it is a necessity that recognizes value already delivered and that sustains the reinvestment cycle that will drive the next generation of global streaming technologies. In an industry built on innovation, preserving this balance is what will ensure we can all benefit from and enjoy a better entertainment experience tomorrow.