The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) are inviting proposals for the next generation of video-compression technology, seeking innovations that significantly surpass the capabilities of the current Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard.
The Call for Proposals from the Joint Video Experts Team – a partnership of ITU-T Study Group 21 (Multimedia, content delivery and cable TV) and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 (Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information) – marks the start of the process to develop a new video coding standard by 2029.
Submissions will be evaluated by the 45th meeting of the Joint Video Experts Team in January 2027.
The project continues a highly influential tradition of joint work, building on the success of VVC (ITU H.266 | ISO/IEC 23090-3), along with the Emmy-winning High Efficiency Video Coding (ITU H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2) and Advanced Video Coding (ITU H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10).
Robust, flexible and future-ready
Video-compression technology needs to meet rising demand for higher quality and lower latency, while providing a robust, flexible foundation for future video applications at a time of major AI-driven transformation.
The Call for Proposals covers a broad range of content types and use cases, including streaming services, video conferencing, social media, gaming, content creation, extended reality (XR), machine vision, and high-dynamic-range (HDR) video.
Proposals may introduce entirely new coding tools, improved system architectures, or novel approaches to advance the state of the art in video compression.
Reflecting an increasingly diverse video ecosystem, innovations will be evaluated across diverse test content ranging from HDR and ultra-high definition (UHD) video to gaming, screen content, and user-generated media.
Register in August
The call invites innovations that demonstrate either significantly improved compression performance or important new functionality beyond the capabilities of VVC.
It welcomes innovations addressing future multimedia requirements, including those arising from the continued evolution of AI-enabled content creation, processing, analysis, and delivery.
All proposals will undergo rigorous evaluation through both formal subjective quality assessment and objective performance measurements.
Got a groundbreaking video coding innovation?
Check out the Call for Proposals.
The formal registration period opens on 1 August and ends on 1 September 2026.
Source: https://www.itu.int/hub/2026/07/beyond-vvc-call-for-proposals-on-future-video-coding/
