TV Answer Man, has ESPN said what will be the 4K college game this week? Will there be a 4K game this week? I know they don’t always have one. — Neal, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Neal, 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 29). ESPN will broadcast the Cincinnati-UCF game from Orlando’s FBC Mortgage Stadium in ‘native 4K’ on participating pay TV services at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will be simulcast in high-def on ESPN.
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 the UCF Knights (5-2) have a 60.4 percent chance of defeating the 20th ranked Bearcats of Cincinnati (6-1).
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.
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