ETRI's media technologies break the 100 billion KRW milestone in royalty revenues

Korean researchers, leveraging world-class expertise in next-generation media compression and broadcast transmission technologies, are leading international standardization efforts while generating substantial technology revenues and contributing significantly to the global industry.

The Media Research Division of Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) is a world-class research organization with more than 80 PhD-level researchers. Over the past 20 years, it has been continuously developing core fundamental technologies in video and audio compression, as well as broadcast transmission, focusing on MPEG and Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard bodies.

Through these efforts, the company has secured more than 2,000 patents in major international standards in the media field, including ▲ High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), ▲ Versatile Video Coding (VVC), ▲ Unified Speech and Audio Coding (USAC), ▲ Three Dimension Audio (3DA), ▲ Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), and ▲ Broadcast transmission technology (ATSC 3.0), with cumulative royalty revenues exceeding KRW 100 billion.

Furthermore, as these technologies are expected to continue being utilized across global industries in the coming years, the researchers anticipate that additional royalty revenue exceeding KRW 100 billion would be possible in the future.

In particular, the audio compression standards Unified Speech and Audio Coding (USAC) and Three Dimension Audio (3DA) were ranked second in the world in MPEG’s official quality assessment in 2008 and 2014, respectively. This achievement demonstrates the international competitiveness of ETRI’s R&D.

At the 144th MPEG meeting held in Hannover, Germany, in 2023, ETRI reaffirmed its technological leadership in AI-powered media processing by taking both first and second place worldwide in the ‘Feature Compression for Video Coding for Machines (FCVCM)’ category.

In addition, ATSC 3.0-based next-generation broadcast transmission technology was adopted as the core technology for Brazil’s next-generation broadcast standard “TV 3.0” and was recognized as an official standard by the SBTVD Forum in July 2024. The VVC and 3DA compression technologies, which were also adopted, are expected to serve as core infrastructure for the Brazilian broadcasting ecosystem.

The ATSC 3.0 standard was also adopted as the next generation broadcast standard for North America in 2017. ATSC 3.0 offers ultra-high definition (UHD), interactive services, personalized services, and more compared to the existing ATSC 1.0. In Korea, it was first introduced to terrestrial UHD broadcasting in 2017, and in the U.S., it was introduced to NextGen TV mainstream broadcasting in 2020. Since then, it has spread as a next-generation broadcasting standard.

This achievements in international standardization have translated into royalty revenue, which has been reinvested into challenging fundamental technology research, creating a virtuous cycle. The economic value of ETRI’s technologies in media codecs over the past six years is estimated at approximately KRW 1.2915 trillion.

ETRI’s technologies are currently embedded as chips or software in over 5 billion devices worldwide - including smartphones, TVs, set-top boxes, and in-vehicle systems - enabling people to seamlessly enjoy services based on these technologies in their daily lives.

Currently, ETRI is focusing on the development of sixth-generation compression technologies, Beyond VVC and Post USAC, and is accelerating R&D on future media technologies for the efficient delivery of ultra-high-definition content in metaverse, XR, digital twins, and generative media, including spatial sound, volumetric video, and AI-based compression. In particular, these technologies are also gaining attention as core solutions for the storage and transmission of AI-generated multimodal content.

“We will continue to secure technological sovereignty based on our proprietary innovations in the global media market through a structure that connects technology development, international standardization, industrial adoption, and patent monetization,” said Tae Jin Lee, Assistant Vice President of ETRI’s Media Research Division.

ETRI’s media technology has achieved balanced success in terms of technological excellence, economic impact, and industrial influence, clearly demonstrating that Korea is securing technological sovereignty in the global media market through its unique technologies.

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ETRI is currently working on ▲ Development of Transceiver Technology for Terrestrial 8K Media Broadcast ▲ Development of Receiver Chip for ATSC 3.0 Mobile Broadcast ▲ Development of Audio/Video Coding and Light Field Media Fundamental Technologies for Ultra Realistic Tera-media with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Institute for Information & Communication Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).