The United States continues its slow march toward 4K live sports, with Fox Sports rolling out live 4K streaming for its upcoming Thursday Night Football games, starting with September 26th’s Philadelphia Eagles / Green Bay Packers game.
Fox will be offering “4K” streams of the games that will be produced in 1080p and then upconverted to 4K — which, depending on how you view it, may or may not be a “real” 4K stream. At the very least, it’ll likely look better than a regular HD stream, assuming you’ve got the setup for it.
Limited to a few Roku devices and the Apple TV 4K
Hardware is the other catch: the stream will only be available on specific Roku devices that support 4K (the Roku Premiere, Roku Premiere+, Roku Streaming Stick+, Roku Ultra, and 4K Roku smart TVs) or an Apple TV 4K box. Assuming you’ve got the proper box (and a 4K TV, of course), you’ll be able to access the 4K stream through the Fox Sports and Fox Now apps, as well as through distributors like DirecTV, Optimum, Xfinity, Fios, and FuboTV.
4K sports streams have been slow to roll out in the US, despite the increasing prevalence of 4K TVs and streaming boxes. But after events like the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, 2018 Men’s World Cup, and the 2018 Winter Olympics, we’re starting to see more live content streaming in 4K.