Alliance for Open Media

What Alliance for Open Media does

Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is a nonprofit standards consortium founded in 2015 and operated as a project of the Joint Development Foundation, headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts. The organization defines and develops open, royalty-free media compression and delivery standards, with a portfolio spanning video codecs (AV1, AV2), image formats (AVIF), immersive audio (IAMF), film grain synthesis (AFGS1), timed metadata (ID3), and polygonal mesh coding (PMC) for 3D/volumetric content. Its core technology stack rests on AV1, which delivers approximately 30% better compression efficiency than prior codecs, and on its successor AV2 v1.0 released in June 2026, which promises up to 32% smaller file sizes than AV1 at equivalent quality. AOMedia also maintains open-source reference implementations including the dav1d decoder (widely deployed across Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Android, iOS), the SVT-AV1 encoder (used by Meta for over 75% of Facebook/Instagram watch time), libaom, libavif, and libiamf.

AOMedia serves streaming platforms and video service providers (Netflix, Meta, YouTube, Vimeo), hardware manufacturers and semiconductor companies (NVIDIA, Intel, Samsung, Arm), browser vendors (Google, Apple, Mozilla, Microsoft), and emerging segments in gaming, AR/VR, and 3D content creation. The AV1 codec now constitutes 30% of Netflix's global streaming traffic and is consumed by 70%+ of Meta's users, while Vimeo's image pipeline is approximately two-thirds AVIF, demonstrating broad production-grade adoption across major consumer internet platforms.

The organization's business model is membership-funded: AOMedia does not charge licensing fees for implementation of its standards, which are released under a royalty-free patent policy. Revenue is derived from membership dues paid by Promoter and Contributor tier members. AOMedia is governed by a board of 12 Founding Members — Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung, Intel, Mozilla, Cisco, and Tencent — with an expanding broader ecosystem that now includes 49 member organizations. Go-to-market is community-led: adoption is driven by open-source software releases, public specification availability, industry events (CES, IBC, NAB), and member-driven ecosystem initiatives rather than traditional sales motions.

Name

Alliance for Open Media

Legal name

Alliance for Open Media

Website

https://aomedia.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is a 2015-founded nonprofit standards consortium developing royalty-free open media compression standards (AV1, AV2, AVIF, IAMF, PMC) for streaming platforms, hardware manufacturers, browser vendors, and AR/VR developers, funded by member dues from 49 organizations including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Netflix.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Media Compression Standards

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries (512)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Interoperability & Integration Tooling (APIs, connectors, standards support) (MPAHANAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Partner Integrations & Distribution (App Stores, Channels, OEM/Carrier Bundles) (MPAHAJAO), Video Conferencing & Meetings (HDAIAHAI)

Keywords

• Video codec standards
• Media compression
• Royalty-free codecs
• Image format standards
• Immersive audio

Headquarters

HQ city

Wilmington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Standards Development and Licensing: AOMedia develops and releases open standards under a royalty-free patent policy. The organization does not charge licensing fees for implementation of its standards. Revenue is derived from membership fees fromPromoter and Contributor level members who fund the organization's operations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Alliance for Open Media is an industry consortium that develops open, royalty-free media compression specifications and reference software, primarily the AV1 and AV2 video codecs, the AVIF still-image format, and the IAMF immersive audio format. Its deliverables are published as written standards, bitstream specifications, and reference encoder/decoder implementations that member companies and the broader ecosystem use to build interoperable products.

Product overview

Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is a standards organization that develops open-source, royalty-free specifications and reference implementations for digital media. The portfolio includes video codecs (AV1, AV2), image format (AVIF), audio specification (IAMF), 3D volumetric compression (PMC), and supporting tools. AV1 and AV2 are the core video compression standards; AVIF extends AV1 to still images; IAMF provides immersive audio container specification; PMC addresses 3D mesh compression for gaming and VR. Reference software including dav1d decoder, SVT-AV1 encoder, and libavif enable practical implementation of these open standards across devices and platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AV1 (AOMedia Video 1): Open video codec designed to provide high-quality video compression with greater efficiency than previous codecs, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth
• AVIF (AV1 Image File Format)
• IAMF (Immersive Audio Model & Format)
• ID3 Timed Metadata
• AFGS1 (AOMedia Film Grain Synthesis 1)
• PMC (Polygonal Mesh Coding)

Products and services

• AV1 Video Codec Royalty-free video compression specification and reference encoder/decoder software for streaming, broadcast, real-time communications, and storage use cases, intended for codec implementers and product builders.
• AV2 Video Codec Next-generation royalty-free video codec under development, targeting improved compression efficiency over AV1 for streaming and storage applications.
• AVIF Image Format Royalty-free still-image container specification using AV1 intra-frame coding, intended for use on the web, in applications, and in image-processing pipelines.
• IAMF Immersive Audio Format Royalty-free specification and reference implementation for immersive audio, enabling spatial audio carriage alongside AV1/AV2 video in streaming and playback pipelines.
• Codec Reference Software (libaom, dav1d) Open-source reference encoder and decoder software distributed with codec specifications, used by implementers as a reference for compliance and as a starting point for production-quality codecs.

Quantifiable outcome

• 30% of Netflix's global streaming traffic uses AV1 codec
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Immersive MachinesminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 April 2026Developer of professional software tools for immersive audio mastering joined at Promoter level. Contributes to STFWG and Audio Codec Working Group.
• Green Field SoundminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 March 2026Audio strategy and technology consultancy joined at Promoter level. Contributes to Storage and Transport Formats Working Group and IAMF specification.
• QencodeminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 February 2026Video encoding, streaming and storage solutions provider joined at Promoter level. Contributes to Video Codec Working Group for AV1/AV2 advancements.
• University of YorkminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 February 2026Joined at Promoter level in February 2026. Contributes research expertise through CoSTAR Live Lab to AOMedia Audio Codec Working Group for IAMF specification development.
• Two OriolesminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 October 2025Video compression products company joined at Promoter level. Contributes to Codec Working Group and SIWG. Developed dav1d AV1 decoder widely used as software fallback.
• BitmovinminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 September 2022Leading video streaming infrastructure provider joined at Promoter level. Provides cloud encoding service with AV1 support including 5x speed improvements.
• VideoLANcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 March 2018Creator of VLC media player. Developed dav1d, the widely-used open source AV1 decoder. Demonstrated first AV2 decoding in native desktop media player at CES 2026.
• AmazoncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member of AOMedia. Amazon Video contributed to AV1 development and supports royalty-free video codec adoption for streaming infrastructure and customer delivery.
• ApplecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member providing expertise in video codec development, Safari browser integration, and device optimization for AV1/AV2 support.
• GooglecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member and Chrome team contributor to AV1. Hosted AV2 public review at av2.aomedia.org and demonstrated AV2 in Chrome at CES 2026.
• MetacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member. Facebook/Instagram use SVT-AV1 for encoding; 70%+ of Meta users consume AV1 video. Contributed to AV2 development and testing.
• MicrosoftcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member contributing to AV1 specification development and Windows/Edge browser support for video codec implementation.
• NetflixcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member. AV1 constitutes 30% of Netflix global streaming traffic. Co-developed SVT-AV1 with Intel. Major contributor to AV2 codec development.
• NVIDIAcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member contributing hardware decoder expertise and GPU optimization for AV1/AV2 video playback.
• Samsung ElectronicscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member. Samsung Visual Display demonstrated AV1 8K HDR10+ videos at CES. Co-developed Eclipsa Audio with Google and Arm.
• IntelcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member. Co-developed SVT-AV1 with Netflix. Intel contributes hardware optimization and CPU-specific implementations.
• MozillacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member. Firefox browser integrates dav1d decoder for AV1 playback. Contributed to specification development.
• CiscocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member contributing collaboration and video conferencing expertise to AV1 real-time communication support.
• TencentcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Board-level Founding Member. Contributed to SVT-AV1 development and AV2 codec architecture. Major streaming platform support for AV1 adoption.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): Open standards organization that develops internet protocols underpinning streaming media delivery. A peer institution to AOMedia in open, royalty-free infrastructure standards, and the home of protocols (HLS-related, QUIC) that integrate with AOMedia codecs.
• Via Licensing Alliance: Patent pool administrator (formerly MPEG LA's audio/video programs) that licenses HEVC and other standards. Operates the licensing infrastructure AOMedia's royalty-free model is designed to displace.
• HEVC Advance: Patent pool administrator licensing HEVC/H.265 intellectual property. AOMedia positions AV1/AV2 as royalty-free alternatives to HEVC Advance's licensed pool, making them direct adversaries in the codec economics debate.
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): International standards consortium for the World Wide Web (HTML, CSS, WebCodecs). Shares AOMedia's open-standards governance model and overlaps on web media APIs where AV1/AV2 and AVIF are adopted as web-native formats.
• Khronos Group: Open standards consortium for graphics, compute, and media APIs (Vulkan, OpenXR, WebGL, glTF). Like AOMedia, it is a multi-stakeholder nonprofit developing royalty-free, cross-vendor media and graphics standards adopted across hardware and software ecosystems.
• Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG / ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29): The ISO/IEC standards body that develops HEVC/H.265, VVC/H.266, and other competing video codecs. AOMedia was explicitly created to offer a royalty-free alternative to MPEG's patent-laden codec ecosystem, making MPEG AOMedia's most direct counterpart in the codec standards space.

Emerging players

• Bitmovin: Cloud video encoding and streaming infrastructure provider and AOMedia member, delivering 5x AV1 encoding speedups. Comparable in that it builds commercial products atop the same open codec ecosystem AOMedia develops.

Others

• Joint Development Foundation (parent): AOMedia's parent organization under the Linux Foundation. Houses multiple industry standards projects (e.g., IETF-adjacent efforts) and is the legal/operational framework AOMedia operates within.

Broad incumbents

• Dolby Laboratories: Owns proprietary audio (Dolby Atmos, Dolby AC-4) and video (Dolby Vision) formats that compete directly with AOMedia's IAMF/Eclipsa Audio and AV1/AV2. Dolby is the dominant incumbent in premium audio-visual standards against which AOMedia's royalty-free codecs are positioned.
• Fraunhofer IIS: Key developer of mp3, AAC, and HE-AAC audio codecs and a participant in MPEG video standards. A longstanding audio codec R&D powerhouse whose proprietary licensing model competes with AOMedia's IAMF/Eclipsa Audio.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/AOMediaCodec
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@allianceforopenmedia2446
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/alliance-for-open-media
• Xx.com/a4omedia

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Alliance for Open Media