Translation: Zhou Yingping, Intellectual Property Finance
On January 24, Avanci, an independent leader in the field of co-licensing, announced on its official website that Shenzhen Junwei Intelligent (ZENVIEW) Co., Ltd. officially joined the Avanci Radio and Television ATSC 3.0 one-stop licensing platform and became the licensee of the platform. It is also the first Chinese company to join the Avanci broadcast platform as a licensee.
Since its official launch in March last year, the Avanci broadcast platform has made rapid progress, and in less than a year, it has gathered a number of licensors and licensees, all of whom are important patent owners or equipment manufacturers in the field of ATSC 3.0 standards. Building on the success of the vehicle and IoT licensing program, Avanci is bringing its licensing solutions that simplify the licensing process and accelerate technology sharing to radio stations and beyond. In this process, Chinese enterprises are increasingly deeply integrated into the global promotion and application of standard technologies.
Including major rights holders and manufacturers, Avanci's broadcast and television platform has accelerated its expansion
ATSC is a standard series for digital television, developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. The first generation of the ATSC standard was officially adopted in 1995, nearly 30 years ago. The ATSC 3.0 standard, which is the "Next Gen TV standard", was officially released in January 2018, which uses advanced coding and modulation technologies such as HEVC video codec, Dolby AC-4 audio encoder, OFDM advanced modulation, etc., to achieve OTA (terrestrial broadcast television) and OTT (streaming television) hybrid service support, providing better audio and video quality, higher compression efficiency, more robust device reception and transmission, higher accessibility, personalization and interactivity, as well as other technological improvements that are better than previous generation standards. While further improving the TV viewing experience for subscribers, ATSC 3.0 will also be available for customised advertising, on-demand content, interactive, and other content services delivered over the Internet, such as premium content, giving broadcasters greater flexibility and adaptability.
At present, the ATSC 3.0 standard has been applied to aerial television broadcasting in the United States, South Korea and other countries, and related products have maintained a fairly high market growth rate in recent years. According to recent data released by the Consumer Technology Association, the cumulative installation of ATSC 3.0 receivers in the United States is expected to exceed 10.3 million units in 2024, and sales of ATSC 3.0 TV products are expected to increase by 45%[1]. The booming ATSC 3.0 product market has attracted many new and old players in the industry, including Junwei Intelligence, which has joined the Avanci broadcast platform.
Similar to industries such as telecommunications and automobiles, radio and television is also a concentrated field for the application of technical standards, and it also faces the burden of licensing negotiations caused by the dispersion of standard essential patents (SEPs) in the hands of multiple different rights holders. The Avanci broadcast platform aims to simplify the SEP licensing process for ATSC 3.0 technologies by bringing together patent owners and device manufacturers of ATSC 3.0 products, such as TVs and set-top boxes, to license these key technologies through a single agreement at a fair and fixed rate, thereby eliminating the hassle of negotiating separate licenses with multiple rights holders.
According to the information on Avanci's official website, the license rate of the Avanci broadcast platform based on each device (TV/set-top box) will be priced separately according to the license signing date. The license fee is $2.75 per device (signing date 2028) for device manufacturers who sign a license agreement within 6 months of the launch date of their first ATSC 3.0 device, and $3 per device (signing date 2028) if they sign a license agreement more than 6 months after the sale of their first ATSC 3.0 device. In addition, for set-top boxes only, the first 75,000 set-top boxes sold by the device manufacturer will be exempt from the license fee if the device manufacturer signs a license agreement before February 28, 2024 or within 6 months of the first sale of its ATSC 3.0 set-top box, whichever is later. During the term of the agreement, the license will automatically cover all of Licensor's ATSC 3.0 patents, including patents under the name of the new licensor as well as new patents from existing licensors, while the rate will remain the same.
While effectively improving the efficiency of licensing, Avanci is also focused on expanding the patent and device coverage of broadcast platforms. With the addition of Junwei Intelligence, the number of licensees of the Avanci broadcast platform has increased to 7, including leading manufacturers of ATSC 3.0 devices such as LG Electronics, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony, and 13 licensors, including LG Electronics, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic, and China National Engineering Research Center for Digital Television (NERC-DTV). The platform currently comprises more than eighty percent of the declared ATSC 3.0 standard patent families, while licensees account for more than 95% of the global ATSC 3.0 television market. There is no doubt that the Avanci broadcast platform has become the most influential licensing platform in the field of ATSC 3.0 in the world.
With the help of Avanci's licensing model, Chinese enterprises are deeply integrated into the standard technology process
According to the official website, Junwei Intelligence was established in July 2021 and is located in Longhua District, Shenzhen, focusing on ATSC 3.0, DVB (S2/T2) and IoT product research and development, and the R&D team has more than 15 years of experience in the research and development of digital TV set-top boxes and IoT products, and has become a member of the HarmonyOS Developer Alliance. As a fast-growing company, Junwei Intelligence, based in Shenzhen, provides global customers with a variety of software and hardware solutions for digital TV and IoT products. At present, the products using Junwei's overall solution have been exported to the United States, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and other regions.
In the interview, Wei Wanxiao, general manager of Junwei Intelligence, pointed out the main motivation for the company's cooperation with Avanci: "Avanci Radio and Television provides an efficient and transparent one-stop solution, and clarifies the business expectations of intellectual property rights for the industry chain, which will play a vital role in the prosperity and development of the new generation of TV industry." We are confident that with the Avanci Broadcast and TV license, Junwei will be able to focus more on delivering innovative solutions to existing and new customers." ”
It is worth mentioning that Junwei is not the first Chinese company to join the Avanci broadcast platform. As early as May 2023, the Shanghai National Engineering Research Center for Digital Television (NERC-DTV) joined the platform together with the Korea Electronics and Communications Research Institute (ETRI), Royal Dutch Telecom (KPN), and NEC (NEC), becoming the first Chinese rights holder on the platform. According to public information, NERC-DTV was jointly established by Shanghai HD Digital Technology Industry Co., Ltd. in December 2009 in conjunction with Hisense, Konka, Changhong, TCL, Haier, Skyworth, Beiguang Technology, Shanghai Oriental Media, Shanghai Media and other leading universities, scientific research institutions, broadcasters and enterprises in the field of digital television. As the global secretariat of the Global Future Radio and Television Program, NERC-DTV has long focused on the demand research and development in the field of digital television and media networks, promoting the sharing of technological progress and sharing between developed and developing countries, and continuously promoting the evolution of future media networks through technology and service integration. "As an organization dedicated to the research and development of digital TV and media network technologies, including ATSC 3.0, NERC-DTV is pleased to see its innovations being adopted by product companies such as Junwei Intelligence," said Yao Wang, Vice President of NERC-DTV. The Avanci broadcast platform provides a one-stop, predictable, and efficient licensing solution that we believe is critical to building a healthy industry ecosystem. ”
Avanci has been known for its licensing of standardized cellular communication technologies, and its 4G/5G vehicle projects include a number of important Chinese rights holders, such as China Telecom, China Mobile, Coolpad, Datang Mobile, Huawei, OPPO, TCL, UNISOC, ZTE, etc. Avanci's successful licensing practices in the fields of Internet of Vehicles and the Internet of Things have laid a good foundation for it to build a broadcast platform, and the single licensing and simplified process with distinctive Avanci characteristics has also been carried over to its broadcast platform, helping standards implementers to efficiently complete the required patent licenses, and opening up a wider range of channels for patent owners to obtain reasonable returns on innovation and R&D on a global scale. The addition of Junwei Intelligence marks that Chinese companies have occupied a place in the ranks of licensors and licensees of the Avanci radio and television platform, and also means that Chinese enterprises have participated in and led the process of standard technology in depth.
Ilkka Rahnasto, Senior Vice President and Head of Broadcast and Television Platform at Avanci, extended a warm welcome to Junwei Intelligence's platform licensees. The veteran professional, who has worked at Nokia for more than two decades and led the successful transformation of its IP department, said: "We are pleased to see that Avanci's stand-alone turnkey licensing solution for broadcast platforms has been adopted by the first licensee in China. In the future, Avanci looks forward to more licensees and licensors from China and other regions participating. ”
Exegesis:
1.https://lmtw.com/mzw/content/detail/id/230947/keyword_id/-1
Source: Intellectual Property Finance
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