Will Native 4K Live Sports Streaming Arrive in 2025?
When it comes to 4K for live sports streaming, much of today’s content delivery arguably operates in a kind of limbo where the 4K viewers see may well be up-rez’d 1080p. The landscape is even murkier when it comes to ATSC 3.0/Next-Gen OTA TV in the U.S., according to Your Media Transformation Managing Director Thierry Fautier, due to the current regulatory environment. SVTA CEO Jason Thibeault, Media Technology Director Corey Smith, and Faultline’s Tommy Flanagan discuss the current impediments and future prospects for native 4K sports streaming delivery in this raucous debate from Streaming Media Connect 2024.
Flanagan says to the group, “Delivering 4K is one question, but particularly for sports and other live content, most of the 4K we see is now 1080p that is upscaled. So, given the costs involved for production and distribution, will we really see any native 4K via streaming due to the cost for OTA delivery of 4K using ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV? That's a big question.”
The murky landscape of ATSC 3.0/Next-Gen OTA TV in the U.S.
Fautier highlights the murky landscape of ATSC 3.0/Next-Gen OTA TV in the U.S. “In Europe, Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in Spain and France already has 2160 HDR, and the reason for that is they have spectrum being allocated by the government. Unfortunately, in the US, you don't have this luxury. You have a TSC1 simulcast with ATSC 3.0; for those reasons, you do not have it yet in the US in broadcast 2160. Now, back to the streaming and production costs. When I talk to my friends at Amazon, they tell me that for Prime, what is really preventing them from upgrading 1080p to 2160 is the production cost. If they had to upgrade 1080p to 2160, it'd be assuming not all the people get UHD at home because of bandwidth limitations, and because of TV household capabilities, it'll probably double their CDN bill. So for those two reasons, for large-scale events like Amazon Prime or Peacock NFL, with huge audiences of 15 million people, I think it's still a pipe dream for the years to come.”
Why some high-profile events use 4K while regular events often do not
Corey Smith asks, “Why are we pushing 4K trucks all over the place for broadcast if we're satisfied with a 1080p delivery?”
Fautier replies, “I think we need to make a difference between a big event like the Super Bowl, FIFA, the World Cup, and the Olympics, where you have real means, versus a recurring event, which are not so well funded, and in that case, you might not get all the nice trucks you dream of, Corey. That's my understanding of the situation today.”
“I think 2025 is going to be that year [where] there is the rapid acceleration of experimentation around 4K to really get some hard numbers around who's capable of doing it and who's not,” Smith argues. “Everything is still going to be compressed in an IP streaming world, but at some point, the technology is already there. Broadcasters are already experimenting with this technology today. We just need to get out of the way of living in this traditional linear model.”
Data caps and bandwidth limitations remain significant barriers
Thibeault notes that data caps and bandwidth limitations remain significant barriers to widespread 4K upgrades. “My issue with this whole streaming in 4K is you are butting up against ISPs with data caps,” he says. “So if I'm a consumer and I'm paying X amount, I do not want 25 megabits per second of streaming into my TV when I'm not really going to appreciate the visual acuity [of it]. 1080p HDR is way less data. Maybe it's 85 or 90% of a similar visual experience in 4K. I agree with Corey that we should capture and produce in 4K. We are. Why wouldn't you produce the highest quality master you can? That's the beauty of adaptive bit rate. So yes, I believe most people are producing in the highest quality they can, but streaming? No. I will continue to pound the pulpit that 2025 is not the year for 4K.”
Join us in February 2025 for more thought leadership, actionable insights, and lively debate at Streaming Media Connect.
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