MPEG-4 licensing agreement terms announced

The MPEG LA and patent holders of MPEG-4 announced today that they have reached an agreement on the final licensing terms for the streaming media format, which is featured in QuickTime 6. Under the agreement, content providers have three options: US$0.02 per hour of content or $0.25 per subscriber, with a $1 million cap; or a $1 million annually paid-up fee to avoid royalty reporting obligations. Content providers with 50,000 subscribers or less do not have to pay the MPEG LA licensing fees.