From English Wikipedia article "Advanced Video Coding", with cited sources:
"The commercial use of patented H.264 technologies requires the payment of royalties to MPEG LA and other patent owners. MPEG LA has allowed the free use of H.264 technologies for streaming Internet video that is free to end users, and Cisco Systems pays royalties to MPEG LA on behalf of the users of binaries for its open source H.264 encoder."
(...)
"On August 26, 2010, MPEG LA announced that royalties won't be charged for H.264 encoded Internet video that is free to end users.[74] All other royalties remain in place, such as royalties for products that decode and encode H.264 video as well as to operators of free television and subscription channels.[75] The license terms are updated in 5-year blocks.[76]"
> streaming Internet Video that is Free to End Users
Yeah, doesn't sound like that would include Netflix, etc. Nor would it include a huge amount of other video that is distributed in other ways. It also doesn't cover using your computer to encode h.264 like your webcam almost certainly does.
The fact is you probably have several h.264 enabled devices on your computer right now that are licensed. And just because Cisco is covering the cost for it's open source encoder doesn't mean the license doesn't exist.
My feeling is if HEVC wins the race it will be the same. 90% of people won't even notice since your license will be included in your hardware/OS without you ever knowing.
"The commercial use of patented H.264 technologies requires the payment of royalties to MPEG LA and other patent owners. MPEG LA has allowed the free use of H.264 technologies for streaming Internet video that is free to end users, and Cisco Systems pays royalties to MPEG LA on behalf of the users of binaries for its open source H.264 encoder."
(...)
"On August 26, 2010, MPEG LA announced that royalties won't be charged for H.264 encoded Internet video that is free to end users.[74] All other royalties remain in place, such as royalties for products that decode and encode H.264 video as well as to operators of free television and subscription channels.[75] The license terms are updated in 5-year blocks.[76]"
[74] "MPEG LA's AVC License Will Not Charge Royalties for Internet Video that is Free to End Users through Life of License" (PDF). MPEG LA. August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2010. http://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachme... [75] Hachman, Mark (August 26, 2010). "MPEG LA Cuts Royalties from Free Web Video, Forever". pcmag.com. Retrieved August 26, 2010. https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368359,00.asp [76] "AVC FAQ". MPEG LA. August 1, 2002. Retrieved May 17, 2010. http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/FAQ.aspx