Samsung and Nokia sign licensing deal for video tech in smart TVs

According to the latest news (via MSN – Reuters), Nokia and Samsung have signed a multi-year patent license agreement today.

The agreement will allow Samsung to use Nokia video technologies for smart TVs in exchange for royalty payments.

Exactly what kind of Nokia-developed video technologies Samsung wants to use under license is unclear, but it may have something to do with codecs.

A year ago, Nokia published a blog post detailing how codecs will change over the next five years and how video will be used and consumed in more diverse ways, often interpreted by AI applications. Videos are rendered on numerous device types, from holographic to augmented reality screens and everything in between.

At that time, Nokia said that video codecs have to be “capable of handling such diverse needs efficiently and qualitatively.”

It's not entirely clear if the new Samsung-Nokia multi-year licensing agreement has to do with Nokia's video codecs, but it's no mystery that Samsung is now applying more advanced AI-based technologies to its smart TVs.

At CES 2025, Samsung announced a new NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor for smart TVs and the Vision AI technology that elevates the search functionality on TVs to a whole new level. Just press one button on the remote and Vision AI will look for items and people on the screen to deliver relevant web search results.

Samsung is also developing an AI-powered XR (eXtended Reality) headset, which should be released this year.