Sling will be coming on strong in 2024, offering its users live 4K content. The platform says Sling TV subscribers will be able to stream 4K content on their streaming services. in glorious UHD. The event will air on Fox Sports on July 16.
The company says this 4K experience will only be available to customers in “certain markets,” though it indicated this will lead to more high-resolution offerings in the near future. “Get ready to watch your favorite sports like never before,” said Seth Van Sickel, SVP of product and operations for Sling Video Services.
Its competitor Fubo TV has been offering 4K broadcasts of select sporting events since 2019, and YouTube TV Univision since 2016.
However, it is true that the vast majority of sporting events are not broadcast in 4K. Even many of those that are advertised as 4K are actually upscaled broadcasts to 1080p. It is actually quite difficult to stream live sports in 4K, due to the number of cameras needed to adequately cover one of these events. Major NFL games and well, 4K cameras are much more expensive than HD cameras.
There are also several hurdles to overcome. 4K cameras require at least twice as much cabling from the camera to the production area. At a sporting event, that translates to thousands of feet of dense cabling for a single camera, let alone 80. 4K cameras also increase the number of video console inputs needed by a factor of four.
The signal must be processed and compressed for broadcast, which requires a lot of processing power. These processors must be kept cool, which is another expense. Finally, the broadcaster has to send the signal to its distribution partners, and many of them simply can't handle 4K. All of this is an expensive undertaking, even though 4K TVs have been the standard in homes for about a decade.
As for Sling, it plans to continue this 4K streaming experiment with college and pro football on Fox Sports and the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics on NBC. Maybe this will finally make 4K sports streaming the norm rather than an occasional experience.