UN group OKs new video format to save bandwidth

The U.N. telecommunications agency says its members have agreed upon a new compression format that could dramatically cut the amount of Internet bandwidth currently used by video files.

The U.N. telecommunications agency says its members have agreed upon a new compression format that could dramatically cut the amount of Internet bandwidth currently used by video files.

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The International Telecommunication Union says the format, or codec, known as H.265 would require just half the amount of data needed by its predecessor, H.264.

The Geneva-based agency says videos encoded using the H.264 format - which is favored by devices such as Apple's iPad - currently account for two-fifths of web traffic.

ITU said in a statement late Friday the new H.265 codec could pave the way for "the next wave of innovation," such as faster movie downloads and higher-quality video streaming.