AV2 Video Codec Adoption Talked Up, SVT-AV2 Being Developed

Back in May the AV2 v1.0 specification was released for this next-generaton, royalty-free video codec. This week the Alliance For Open Media issued a press release talking up the early adoption of AV2. AOMedia announced "significant ecosystem momentum" occurring around AV2. They note strong industry interest in this royalty-free video codec backed by the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google, Intel, Netflix, Samsung, and others. AV2 is said to deliver around 30% greater compression efficiency over AV1 while improving HDR performance and other enhancements. Google has been experimenting with AV2 support on YouTube as well as within the Chrome web browser. YouTube AV2 streams are expected in early 2027. Meta is also committed to using AV2 across Facebook and Instagram videos. Intel is also said to be developing SVT-AV2 as a new CPU-based AV2 video encoder. This follows their other Scalable Video Technology (SVT) work on the very successful SVT-AV1 encoder and their other past initiatives like SVT-HEVC and SVT-VP9. More details on this AV2 industry update via the AOMedia press release.