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AV1 beats H.265 on quality. The libaom AV1 encoder is still very slow but it's improving, and there are other encoder efforts like rav1e which are faster but don't yet produce the same image quality.

There are various AV1 demos you can try in Chrome and Firefox. I'm using Firefox 64 beta with "media.av1.enabled" set to true in about:config. Bitmovin has a demo.

You can switch on AV1 for YouTube via their TestTube page and try some high bitrate videos in their AV1 demo playlist. Many YouTube videos have AV1 encodes available up to 720p resolution (try popular music videos to see examples), but YouTube's not optimizing for file size yet. The standard definition AV1 encodes typically have smaller file sizes than the VP9 equivalents, but the 720p AV1 encodes are typically of similar or even larger file sizes than the VP9 versions.

From the pattern of the damage, those YouTube channels belonging to DJ Snake, Drake, Katy Perry, etc. probably are managed by the same record label marketing person. They probably just hacked into the computer managing these channels while the accounts are still logged in. Everything they did for the damage are something that channel owners could do: changing cover picture, video description, deletion. The actual video content itself hasn't been changed, which is exactly what content creators can't do to their videos, despite it being a popular request.

If they had really hacked YouTube, they may have been able to replace the video if they could pull it off, but since the videos are divided into chunks and aggressively cached by the CDN (as the videos are served over MPEG-DASH), they will probably get very mixed result at best with some chunks from the old video mixed with chunks from the new video.

Not really. Bitmovin has already done demos of live streaming with AV1.

Try this AV1 demo with Firefox Nightly. 720p video at 500kbps.

Netflix hasn't decided

They have decided. AV1 will be their preferred codec. AV1 already outperforms H.265 and companies like Bitmovin are adding support for it now. You can try an AV1 demo with Firefox Nightly.

Netflix hasn't decided

They have decided. AV1 will be their preferred codec. AV1 already outperforms H.265 and companies like Bitmovin are adding support for it now. You can try an AV1 demo with Firefox Nightly.

I wonder if GPUs can speed things up?

given that AMD, Nvidia, Intel, ARM, Broadcom are also on board (beside content providers like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Google)
you can bet that Yes, there are going to be GPU implementations.

(And if you've followed the posts of Xiph - you know that they take GPU into account from the beginning).

Also there are already currently cloud based solution that distribute the compression workload accross a cluster.
(Video is split into smaller segment, each segment is independently compressed by a separate job on the cluster, then the compressed streams are concatenated together).
And bitmovin is already providing alpha support for AV-1 as it is now (so they can already test their solution and so, in a few months, on the day when AV-1 hits version 1.00 they are already ready and their users have already tested pipelines).

Actually the only single major player that is missing here is Apple.
Probably because they are betting all their marbles on their own patended H265/MPEG4 HEVC.
They are among the patent owners of the patent - so using/licensing H265 comes much more cheaper for them.
Which was the main reason for everybody else to drop H265 and consider joining Aomedia for AV-1 (between the original patent-pool, the other competing pools that have formed with other sets of patents and patent troll waiting to sue to try to get their share, licensing H265 is a much more expensive adventure than licensing H264/MPEG4 AVC was- To the point that H265 licenses cost a significant part of the price of embed ARM SoC as those used by cheap phones, ruining their competitivity)

AV1 also underperformed HEVC and has zero industry backing. AV1 has no future.

Fixed that for you.

VP9 contains patented technology (much like HEVC)

The issue isn't patents, the issue is the licensing. Baseline JPEG has always contained patented technology but it was licensed under royalty-free terms so everyone was free to use JPEG. Similarly, VP9 contains patented technology which is licensed under royalty-free terms and everyone is free to use it.

This is wholly unlike HEVC. To use HEVC you must buy three separate licenses from three separate patent pools (MPEG LA, HEVC Advance, and Velos Media) and then negotiate additional licenses from companies like Technicolor that aren't in any patent pool.

Apple would have to grant Google free use of its patents

Flatly wrong. Remember that Intel supports VP9 in hardware. Remember that Microsoft supports VP9 in Edge. Read the license and read the licensing FAQ.

As for AV1... well... among other things, it's not finished:

But as you say, it'll be finished at the end of this year. AV1 also outperforms HEVC and has broad industry backing. HEVC has no future.

1. VP8, VP9, and AV1 are royalty-free.

I'll relevant to me as an end user.

AV1 already outperforms HEVC in coding efficiency.

Statement not supported by facts.

Most of the major browser vendors are in the Alliance for Open Media which develops AV1.

I only use safari.

You have given me zero reasons to use your fly by night codec that nobody will ever use.

Why? Give us one good reason why Apple should bother with any of these.

Three good reasons:

1. VP8, VP9, and AV1 are royalty-free. Anyone can use them to encode and decode for any purpose without paying licensing fees. HEVC, in contrast, requires you to buy separate three licenses from three separate patent pools (MPEG LA, HEVC Advance, and Velos Media). Additionally you must negotiate another license from Technicolor to use HEVC and licenses from any other company that isn't in one of the three patent pools.

2. AV1 already outperforms HEVC in coding efficiency. The goal is to be 30% better than HEVC by the time AV1 is released at the end of this year.

3. Most of the major browser vendors are in the Alliance for Open Media which develops AV1. Apple is the only one that isn't.

HEVC is a losing proposition. Apple's making a mistake here.