RealNetworks has relaxed commercial license terms to encourage more device makers to support its technology, which would in turn widen the potential customer-base for its content services.

Under the new licensing regime, third-parties are able to take any part of Real's Helix DNA playback system, including the various codecs and protocol stacks. To date, all these technologies have been available only as a single package - if you wanted the RealVideo codec, you had to take the player too.

But for handset vendors which favour other playback applications, there is now the option to add support for Real-encoded content.

Real hopes the licence changes will help it compete more strongly with Microsoft's Windows Media system and Apple's iTunes in the battle for mobile handset makers and network operators. All three want to attract more users to content services, run by themselves or their mobile partners. The bulk of Real's revenues come from content sales, rather than from the tools that enable the delivery of this content. ®

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