What Is AV1?
This is another installment in our series of "What Is...?" articles, designed to offer definitions, history, and context around significant terms and issues in the online video industry.
The AV1 codec will be the first codec released by the Alliance for Open Media (AOM), and it's scheduled to ship sometime between December 2016 and March 2017. It is positioned to replace Google's VP9 and to compete with the standards-based High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC). While the codec's performance won't be known until it ships, one significant competitive advantage is the Alliance membership, which ensures the prompt deployment of AV1 playback in browsers, mobile devices, OTT, and smart TVs and the distribution of AV1-encoded content by YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon. HEVC enjoys a multiple year lead in hardware-based deployments, however, and some pundits question whether AV1 was created without infringing upon patents owned by H.264, HEVC, and other video-related IP owners.