[M4IF Discuss] RE: [M4IF News] MPEG-4 Visual and Systems Licensing Announced!!

[Jordan Greenhall]

The way I read it, the MSO would pay $1.25 for each sub, regardless of
the number of channels.  So this would be $24M - which is still nothing
like chicken-feed, but is certainly better than $2.5B.
What gets a bit more problematic is Internet video - where each
"channel" like HBO, ESPN, etc., could have their own dedicated sub.  The
MPEG-4 license would not be aggregated across multiple channels as per
the above - but would be charged on a "per channel" basis - which could
lead to billions of dollars of fees shared by the 200 channels.
J
-----Original Message-----
From: Fevzi Karavelioglu [mailto:fevzi   tivo.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2023 11:23 AM
To: William J. Fulco
Cc: Mikael Bourges-Sevenier; 'Rob Koenen'; 'M4IF news (E-mail)'; 'M4IF
Discussion List (E-mail)'
Subject: Re: [M4IF Discuss] RE: [M4IF News] MPEG-4 Visual and Systems
Licensing Announced!!
>OK - so let me get this straight...
>
>If say, SA, Mot or TiVo build an MPEG-4 set-top box they pay $0.25 - 
>OK, fine. However if the user subscribes to a 200-channel package on 
>DirecTV or Digital cable does this mean that every one of those channel

>content-providers must pay $1.25 for a paid-up license to distribute to

>that box? So on a "basic package" - someone (who is likely?) must pay 
>$250 to MPEG-LA per sub - if DirecTV has 20M subs by that time (and 
>they'vet gone MPEG-4), does that mean they (or somebody) owes MPEG-LA 
>$2.5Billion?

Good question.  The channel line ups change, and channels are added and
removed all the time.  How would you monitor/manage this?
In the case of TiVo it is likely each TiVo box built will cost extra 50
cents since it may employ both a decoder and an encoder.
If it is true that billions of dollars would have to paid due to $1.25
per channel then the MSOs cannot afford to adapt MPEG4.
Fevzi.
"William J. Fulco" wrote:
> This license's terms are much better...
>
> Clearly people like Apple and Real and such can just drop the $1M 
> (well, maybe "drop" is too flip a word - sorry Dave :-) and pay-off 
> the license for the year and then give away millions and millions of 
> encoders/decoders... for the little garage-shop codec-implementation 
> house, well - this term could be problematic... you're right about the

> "use for 3 days and then discard", I've got a dozen codecs like that 
> on my system easily.... This is going to be a tough one. I guess you 
> could make your MPEG-4 codec expire - I wonder how that is going to 
> play to the licensing guys? Is it "downloads" of MPEG-4 codecs or is 
> it "being used" codecs - I suspect it is the former...
>
> Here's a question I had...
>
> A line in the press release:
>
> "Current cable television, direct satellite television and 
> over-the-air broadcast that one day may allow a broadcaster to address

> its broadcast to a specific viewer or subscriber will pay a royalty of

> $0.25 for the right to manufacture and sell each decoder and encoder 
> and the party providing content service to the subscriber will pay a 
> royalty of $1.25 for the paid-up right to use a decoder to decode and 
> use encoded MPEG-4 Visual information."
>
> OK - so let me get this straight...
>
> If say, SA, Mot or TiVo build an MPEG-4 set-top box they pay $0.25 - 
> OK, fine. However if the user subscribes to a 200-channel package on 
> DirecTV or Digital cable does this mean that every one of those 
> channel content-providers must pay $1.25 for a paid-up license to 
> distribute to that box? So on a "basic package" - someone (who is 
> likely?) must pay $250 to MPEG-LA per sub - if DirecTV has 20M subs by

> that time (and they'vet gone MPEG-4), does that mean they (or 
> somebody) owes MPEG-LA $2.5Billion?
>
> There is that implication about "addressable decoder" - so does that 
> mean that only the premium-channels like HBO will have to pay for each

> sub in a system? If I have a premium-super-pack with dozens and dozens

> of movie-channels do I/we/they have to pay (1.25 x (dozens and 
> dozens)) dollars for this package?
>
> Maybe this better than $0.02/hour content fee - but I'm not so sure it

> will make CE MPEG-4 work for sat and cable systems. These particular 
> economics would seem to favor delivery of TV programming to such 
> set-top devices via broadband/web-site (Jordan will be happy) and not 
> previous delivery-infrastructure.
>
> But I digress...
>
> ++Bill
> wjf   NetworkXXIII.com
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: discuss-admin   lists.m4if.org 
> > [mailto:discuss-admin   lists.m4if.org]On Behalf Of Mikael 
> > Bourges-Sevenier
> > Sent: Monday, July 15, 2023 4:43 PM
> > To: 'Rob Koenen'; 'M4IF news (E-mail)'; 'M4IF Discussion List 
> > (E-mail)'
> > Subject: [M4IF Discuss] RE: [M4IF News] MPEG-4 Visual and Systems
> > Licensing Announced!!
> >
> >
> > > > However, what happens to companies that provide a freely
> > > downloadable
> > > > player? If I read correctly, they are subject to the $1M/y cap 
> > > > for video and $100k/y for Systems, am I correct?
> > >
> > > Sounds like it. If you are not in the video surveillance business,

> > > you may want to add Audio to your system (and you may even like 
> > > audio if you *are* in the surveillance business).
> > >
> > > These companies also seem entitled to distribute the first 50,000 
> > > systems for free. But given the fact that you only mention the 
> > > caps and not the per en/de-coder royalties, you must be thinking 
> > > Big.
> >
> > These days, an internet player with 'cool' contents can easily reach

> > 50000 installs/year even though many of them are often installed for

> > few days and removed. Then the million dollar question: is there a 
> > 30-day money back guarantee? Just kidding ;-)
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss   lists.m4if.org 
> > http://lists.m4if.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss   lists.m4if.org http://lists.m4if.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss   lists.m4if.org http://lists.m4if.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss