Patent expiration for E-AC3 (Dolby Digital Plus)?

[kurkosdr]

E-AC3 (aka Dolby Digital Plus) is used exclusively for some terrestrial television broadcasts in Europe. For example:
https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.p...live=3&lang=en
https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.p...live=1&lang=en

This got me thinking:

- Is there a patent list (and anticipated expiration date) for decoding E-AC3?

I've tried Googling around and there is no information on the subject. All I can find is people talking about the expiration of AC3 patents and a ETSI patent declaration from 2004 (which, considering how old it is, I am not sure it covers E-AC3).

In fact, even pinpointing a "release date" for E-AC3 has also been impossible for me. Even Wikipedia doesn't have that information. Best I can find is that E-AC3 was a mandatory format for HD-DVD, and since the first HD-DVD player was released on 31st March 2006 (and has a "Dolby Digital Plus" badge), this gives us a "worst case" date of 31st March 2006 when it comes to prior art.

Does anyone have any information on the topic?

PS: The DigitalBitrate website can tell the difference between AC3 and E-AC3 (example of AC3 identified here), so the examples above are not a case of a misidentified stream. You really need an E-AC3 decoder to watch terrestrial TV in some EU countries...