In this paper, a maximum likelihood (ML) unequal error protection (UEP) video streaming technique is proposed for WirelessMAN-Advanced systems that are equipped with multiple antennas. The assumed video compression method is H.264/AVC which is a commercially successful technique. ML signal detection is optimal in terms of packet error performance for multiple antenna systems. However, common wisdom is that the optimal ML detection cannot be used for an implementation of UEP which is important for video streaming. In this paper, it is shown that UEP can be implemented using the optimal ML detection. With the aid of computer simulations, the proposed ML-UEP technique is shown to improve video quality significantly compared to a recently proposed UEP technique that is based on the suboptimal signal detection QR-LRL. The PSNR improvement by the proposed method comes at the cost of increased computational complexity in the physical layer 1.