AV1 at a glance
- Made by
- The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), founded by Amazon, Apple, Arm, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix and NVIDIA
- Released
- 28 March 2018
- Claim at launch
- About 30 percent greater compression than competing codecs for 4K, on average
- Licensing
- Released as royalty-free; Sisvel separately offers paid licences to patents it says relate to AV1
From AOMedia’s 2018 release announcement and Sisvel’s AV1 programme page, checked 1 October 2026.
Why AV1 exists
Streaming services pay for every gigabyte they send. A codec that keeps the same picture with less data saves them money and helps viewers on slower connections. AOMedia’s members built AV1 for internet delivery, aiming at 4K and beyond, and released it as an open, royalty-free format.
Which devices decode AV1
Software decoding of AV1 is heavy, so in practice you need a device with an AV1 hardware decoder. Some examples:
| Device | AV1 decoding |
|---|---|
| Fire TV Stick 4K Max (1st and 2nd gen), Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd gen), Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Cube (3rd gen) | Listed in Amazon’s specifications |
| Fire TV Stick HD (2024), Fire TV Stick (3rd gen), Fire TV Stick Lite | Not listed |
| iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max | Dedicated AV1 decoder in the A17 Pro chip, according to Apple |
For anything else, check the manufacturer’s specifications for “AV1” under video decoding. See hardware vs software decoding.
AV1 vs HEVC for IPTV
| AV1 | HEVC (H.265) | |
|---|---|---|
| Designed by | AOMedia | ITU-T and ISO/IEC |
| Licensing | Released royalty-free; a separate patent pool exists | Licensed through patent arrangements |
| Efficiency | Designed to beat earlier codecs; AOMedia claimed about 30 percent at launch | Designed to need around half H.264’s data for a similar picture |
| Device support | Newer devices only | Most 4K devices from recent years |
| Typical IPTV use | Rare | Most 4K channels |
For an IPTV provider, a codec only helps if customers’ devices can decode it in hardware. Today that favours HEVC for 4K live channels, with H.264 for HD. See HEVC for IPTV.
What this means for you
- Nothing to set up. If a stream uses AV1 and your device supports it, the player uses it automatically.
- When buying a device, AV1 support is a sensible extra for the coming years, especially for streaming apps, but it isn’t essential for IPTV today.
- If an AV1 stream won’t play, the device lacks a decoder for it. Use another version of the channel, or see codec not supported.