Q. I hear that the Super Bowl is in 4K this year, but who will carry it. I have Comcast. Will they carry it in 4K? — Dave, Boston.
Dave, you are right. Fox, which has the broadcast rights to next month’s Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, will offer a 4K stream of the game. This will be the first time that the nation’s biggest sporting event will be available in 4K.
Of course, this is 4K so it gets a little complicated. You see, Fox actually plans to produce the event in 1080p and ‘upscale’ it to a 4K stream as opposed to shooting the event in 4K and transmitting in the same format.
Consequently, the picture will not be as good as ‘true 4K’ (shooting and transmitting in 4K), but it should be better than what Fox has offered in the past for the Super Bowl — 720p HD. (Ugh.)
The network’s 4K stream will be on its Fox Sports app which can be accessed for free on streaming devices such as Roku and Apple TV. That means any viewer — regardless of TV provider — can watch the game in 4K so long as he or she has a 4K TV and a 4K-enabled Roku or Apple TV.
But what if you don’t want to use a Roku or Apple TV, you say? Well, DIRECTV will also carry the game in 4K as will Verizon, Altice (Optimum) and the live streaming service, fuboTV.
Dish and Comcast might yet announce that they will offer the game in 4K as well. Both providers have previously aired Fox-produced events in 4K so it would seem likely they would get on board for the Super Bowl, too. Right, Comcast and Dish?
The TV Answer Man will keep his eyes and ears open and report back here if Dish and Comcast sign up, or if any other TV provider does as well.
Update: Both Dish and Comcast have announced that they will carry the game in 4K.
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
We live in Lawton, Oklahoma and have Direct TV with AT&T.. We heard that one of our channels is going to be unavailable due to no agreement regarding the cost of the channel. Which channel is it and is there anything we can do to avoid this from happening again?