Techniques are provided for multi-channel video encoding with cross-channel look ahead rate control. A methodology implementing the techniques according to an embodiment includes encoding a first video channel to generate a first output bitstream and first channel statistics including a quantization parameter, the first video channel comprising a first plurality of video frames at a first resolution. The method further includes encoding a second video channel to generate a second output bitstream encoded at a bit rate based on the first channel statistics, the second video channel comprising a second plurality of video frames at a second resolution. The second resolution may equal the first resolution depending on target bit rates for the channels. The method further includes performing look ahead processing on the first video channel to generate first channel look ahead statistics, and encoding the second video channel based on the first channel look ahead statistics.