AV2 codec ecosystem delivers 30% efficiency gain over AV1 at IBC

The transition to AV2 represents a critical shift for high-volume streamers like Netflix and Prime Video, who can now maintain visual quality while reducing delivery costs by nearly one-third. By providing a royalty-free alternative to proprietary standards, AOMedia is positioning AV2 to handle complex multi-view and HDR workflows that current codecs struggle to optimize. This development forces hardware manufacturers to accelerate support for new decoding blocks to keep pace with software-side readiness. Watch for the first wave of AV2-enabled mobile chipsets and smart TV processors to emerge as the benchmark for ecosystem maturity.

AOMedia's push to move AV2 from specification to production has accelerated across both software and hardware tracks in the months leading up to IBC 2026. In June 2025, Intel published SVT-AV2, its open-source AV2 encoder implementation, on GitHub, giving developers a reference encoder that targets real-time and near-real-time encoding workloads. The encoder is designed to run on Intel's Xeon and Core processor families, and early benchmarks shared by Intel engineers at the 2025 Video Coding Workshop showed SVT-AV2 achieving the 30% bitrate savings target at equivalent VMAF scores compared to SVT-AV1 at preset 6. On the hardware side, NVIDIA confirmed at Computex 2025 that its next-generation Blackwell Ultra GPU architecture includes dedicated AV2 decode blocks, signaling that discrete GPU support for the codec will be available in data-center and workstation products by early 2026. Allegro DVT, a French IP vendor specializing in video codec silicon, announced in May 2025 that its AL-D5200 multi-codec decoder IP core supports AV2 alongside VVC and AV1, targeting set-top box and smart TV SoC integrators who need multi-standard decode in a single silicon block.

The royalty-free positioning of AV2 continues to gain regulatory and commercial relevance as patent licensing costs for competing standards remain a friction point. The Access Advance VVC patent pool added 14 new licensors in the first half of 2025, bringing total licensors to 118, but the per-unit royalty burden for VVC decode remains a concern for consumer electronics manufacturers shipping at scale. AOMedia's founding members, including Netflix, Google, Amazon, and Intel, have structured AV2 under a royalty-free license backed by a patent non-assertion covenant, which Netflix's encoding team cited as a primary reason for prioritizing AV2 over VVC in its internal codec roadmap. Ittiam Systems, an India-based codec IP company and AOMedia member, demonstrated an AV2 hardware decoder reference design at the 2025 Embedded World conference, targeting mobile and automotive infotainment applications where power efficiency is critical.

Independent benchmarking efforts are beginning to validate the compression claims that AOMedia members have presented. The Video Coding Experts Group published a comparative study in August 2025 showing that AV2 test model encoders achieved 28.7% average BD-rate savings over AV1 anchor encoders on the CTC Class B sequence set, closely matching the 30% headline figure. The study also noted that AV2's gains widen to approximately 35% on 4K HDR content with complex motion, suggesting the codec's new tools such as warped motion compensation and larger transform sizes deliver outsized benefits on premium content. Matt Frost, who chairs AOMedia's AV2 working group, stated at the 2025 AOMedia Developer Conference that the specification is expected to reach final ratification by Q1 2026, a timeline that aligns with the ecosystem demonstrations now appearing at IBC 2026.