Q. I’m very excited about the Super Bowl being in 4K, but I was wondering if this weekend’s championship games will be in 4K, too. It would seem likely considering the Super Bowl will be. So what’s the deal, Mr. Answer Man? — Lauren, Vero Beach, Florida.
Lauren, before I answer, allow me to offer a little background on the NFL and 4K.
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Fox, which has the broadcast rights to the 2020 Super Bowl (February 2 from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami), will produce the event in 1080p and ‘upscale’ it to 4K via a stream on its Fox Sports apps.
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Upscaling is the process when one video format is converted to another. In this case, Fox will take the 1080p HDR signal and convert it to a 4K format. (This is what Fox did during the 2019 season with the 4K display of Thursday Night Football; the Thursday games were not produced in 4K, but they were upscaled to 4K.)
This will be the first time that the Super Bowl will be in 4K, albeit an upscaled 4K.
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DIRECTV, Altice (Optimum) and the live streaming service, fuboTV, have announced they will offer the game in the new display format. Who else might sign up? Well, Comcast said it would a week ago, but is now saying it’s uncertain. Dish is another possibility, but has yet to announce. (The TV Answer Man will monitor this situation and report back here if the 4K provider list changes.)
Update: Verizon has announced it will show the Super Bowl in 4K.
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So, you ask, if the Super Bowl is in 4K, wouldn’t the AFC and NFC championship games be as well.
Answer: No.
And why is that?
For starters, CBS, which is airing the Titans-Chiefs AFC championship game at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, hasn’t even broadcast a NFL game in 4K yet, although it has done some golf tournaments in the format. (Note: Fox was the first network to offer NFL games in 4K, starting last September with Thursday Night Football contests.)
But what about Fox, which is broadcasting the NFC Championship between the 49ers and Packers?
Well, Fox is doing the Super Bowl in 4K, but the location of that game (Miami) has been known for a few years, allowing the network ample time to set up a 1080p broadcast and 4K stream. The NFC championship locale (Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California) wasn’t known until last Sunday, making it more difficult, and probably more expensive, to get a reliable 4K broadcast in place, even just a 4K stream.
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There are other reasons as well for the no-4K policy such as an industry consensus that 4K is not sufficiently popular yet to justify more 4K coverage. (Lachlan Murdoch, Fox’s CEO, says just 10 percent of the network’s Thursday Night Football streaming audience watches the 4K stream.)
This will likely change by the 2021 playoff season, but for now, it is what it is.
Lauren, hope that helps. Happy viewing!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
“Fox’s CEO, says just 10 percent of the network’s Thursday Night Football streaming audience watches the 4K stream.” “Just 10%???” That’s a lot!!! Since there were no commercials on the 4K feeds, that’s a lot eyes NOT watching commercials . . .
Add Verizon Fios to the list of providers showing the Super Bowl in 4k. The announcement was published on 1/15: https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-fios-tv-one-4k
Upscaled 4k video, from 1080 video, would make little difference in overall video quality, as all your doing is repeating each picture element to give 4k. It should be referred as pseudo 4k, not true 4k.
With all the money they pay for the rights, you’d think they could afford it regardless. It’s a cop out at the end of the day…its not cost effective so they don’t do it until enough people complain or 8K comes in and makes it more affordable for 4K.
I was going to watch a basketball game in 4k that appeared on the schedule for channel 1498, but when I tuned to that channel, I only got the audio. A bunch of prompts came up telling me to do several obvious things (check the connection, reboot the STB, etc.), but none of them fixed it. Final prompt said to call them, If you plan to watch the super bowl in 4k, make sure you test it out ahead of time!!!