TV Answer Man, Is there an ESPN 4K game this week? I’m hoping it’s the Texas game since I’m from Texas originally. — Mark, Dunkirk, Maryland.
ESPN has a college football feature called, ‘The 4K Game of the Week,’ although we learned a few weeks ago that the game of the week is not necessarily every week. The sports network actually will do just eight games of the 18-week college football season in 4K.
But you will get a 4K game this Saturday (October 15) and it will be bright and early. ESPN will broadcast the Iowa State-Texas (22nd ranked) game from Texas Memorial Stadium in beautiful ‘native 4K’ on participating pay TV services at noon ET.
The game will be simulcast in high-def on ABC. The game will be simulcast in high-def on ESPN. Mark Jones, Robert Griffin III and Quint Kessenich will be on the call.
If you’re not familiar with the term, native 4K means that the game is produced in 4K on site as well as transmitted to the home in 4K. (In contrast, Fox produces its college football games in 1080p HD on site and then upscales it to 4K HDR for the home transmission. ESPN’s 4K games do not include HDR, also known as High Dynamic Range.)
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The ESPN 4K broadcast will be available on special 4K channels from select pay TV providers, including DIRECTV, Verizon, Comcast and YouTube TV. (Unlike Fox, ESPN does not provide a 4K stream on its app, ESPN+.)
ESPN’s ‘Matchup Predictor’ says Texas (4-2) has an 88.9 percent chance of defeating the 3-3 Cyclones of Iowa State.
In other 4K college football news, the Fox Sports app this Saturday will stream another college football doubleheader in 4K HDR. See this story for details.And NBC will do the Notre Dame-Stanford game in 4K. See this story for details.
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman
