Google, Netflix, Amazon Team For One Video Format To Rule Them All

This week the Alliance for Open Media was launched in hopes of bringing a single open format to video streaming services worldwide. This single format would be adoptable by all, and given the members of the alliance that've announced their allegiance so far, this Alliance is going to be adopted by the biggest of the big. Founding members of the Alliance include Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Mozilla and Netflix. If there were a group of technology leaders able to make this format happen, it's this one.

This Alliance is aiming to meet the growing online demand for "top-quality video, audio, imagery, and streaming across devices of all kinds and for users worldwide." As such, a next-generation video format is needed. To that end, the Alliance for Open Media has made a list of their first requirements for a next-generation video format as follows:

• Interoperable and open;

• Optimized for the web;

• Scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth;

• Designed with a low computational footprint and optimized for hardware;

• Capable of consistent, highest-quality, real-time video delivery; and

• Flexible for both commercial and non-commercial content, including user-generated content.

This Alliance has just been launched. It's brand new. It's part of the Joint Development Foundation, an independent non-profit organization that assists groups and initiatives like these with corporate and legal infrastructure.

The Alliance for Open Media was formed to create media codecs, formats, and technology that'll lead to an open standard for video compression and delivery on the internet.

For more information, seek out the Alliance for Open Media and tell them you're interested in bringing about open media for the whole internet and making such an internet a reality in the near future.