Samsung and Sharp join VVC Advance pool as licensing hits 62% of smartphone market

The inclusion of Samsung and Sharp signals a critical consolidation phase for VVC, reducing the fragmentation that previously hampered 8K and high-efficiency video adoption. By securing 62% of the smartphone market, Access Advance creates a formidable ecosystem that pressures streaming services to begin hardware-accelerated VVC deployments. This move strengthens VVC's standing against the royalty-free AV1 codec, which has seen strong support from major platforms like YouTube and Netflix. For the industry, this establishes a clearer 'one-stop shop' for mobile video licensing. Watch for the first major streaming apps to enable VVC hardware-assisted playback on flagship Android 17 devices in the second half of 2026.

The VVC landscape was previously more fractured, with Access Advance and the Via Licensing Alliance (via MPEG LA) managing separate pools until late 2025. Per ip fray (December 2025), Access Advance acquired Via Licensing's HEVC and VVC pool administration, a strategic consolidation designed to provide a single licensing point for implementers. This move followed the July 2025 launch of the Video Distribution Patent (VDP) Pool, which extended Access Advance’s reach into content streaming licensing across HEVC, VVC, and even the competing AV1 and VP9 codecs.

Competitive pressure remains high as AV1 continues its mainstream push. According to a NETINT survey (March 2026), approximately 40% of organizations planned to deploy AV1 in 2026, driven by Its lack of licensing barriers compared to the 44% of respondents who flagged VVC royalties as a core concern. Despite this, VVC is gaining technical ground via sovereign and mobile OS support. Per Streaming Media (March 2026), Google’s Android 17 has added native VVC support for devices with hardware decoders, while Brazil formally adopted the codec as part of its 'TV 3.0' next-generation broadcast standard in August 2025.

While hardware support for VVC was historically limited, industry analysts at Rethink Research (December 2025) noted that massive growth in bandwidth and software-decoding performance has kept the 'commercial pull' of VVC slightly behind HEVC, which is not expected to be surpassed by any other codec in ubiquity until at least 2028. However, the participation of the world's leading smartphone manufacturers suggests that the industry is preparing for a hardware-led transition where 8K and immersive video formats necessitate the roughly 50% bitrate efficiency gains VVC offers over original HEVC implementations.