The $4.5 Million Squeeze: How Via LA’s Secret H.264 Fee Hike is Shaking the Streaming Industry

The Via Licensing Alliance quietly replaced its flat $100,000 annual H.264/AVC licensing fee for new licensees with a graduated tiered structure effective 2026, charging up to $4.5M annually for the largest platforms; entities that signed before the end of 2025 retain the prior rate. The change, communicated privately to some parties in 2025, adds to rising codec royalty pressures alongside HEVC/VVC/AV1 pools and could materially increase costs for streaming, hardware, and cloud gaming providers.