Google Unveils 'Open' Video Alternative > Pbbt

reply to baineschile

Re: Pbbt

Actually, that is what Google wants to do. Google wants to have a single codec and format that they can use for all of their media without having to pay any royalties, and to do that they need to make it open since they know no one else would accept it otherwise.

Currently the HTML5 codec that is getting pushed by Apple and Microsoft has a very questionable licensing agreement that allows royalties to start being charged in 2015 and may not even technically allow for commercial video distribution as it is currently written.

Google wants to sink this before it becomes a real standard and replace it with an open codec to avoid having to fight a war in five years. Plus if this standard gets put into place Google would be well positioned as a market leader which they could use to help push development tools while integrating everything to YouTube and Google's Video Search technologies. So yes, they do want to give it away, but expect them to make a profit by doing so in the long run from other technologies and internal cost savings.