ESPN announced yesterday that two of its main channels, both ESPN and ESPN 2, will be available to stream in 4K HDR to users in the U.S.
What this will include are important programs such as all in-house ESPN productions, ESPN’s NFL Monday Night Football, select live college football games, NBA and NHL games, the U.S. Open, and major sporting events like Super Bowl LXI (coming in February next year).
ESPN’s tvOS and iOS apps will be the first to get support for this, with coming support for ESPN Unlimited and Disney+ subscribers.
This would include initial Apple devices such as the Apple TV 4K and the iPhone.
In a statement provided by the network, it said the following:
“This update will deliver clearer edges, sharper colors and smoother movement — all critically important for delivering a richer and more immersive viewing experience for sports fans…We will also have the ability to deliver the networks in 4K HDR through traditional and digital pay-TV providers (MVPDs and DMVPDs). As the rollout expands, fans will start seeing 4K HDR badging on living room devices and HDR badging on mobile.”
ESPN also told fans and users to look out this fall as more support will be going live on its various platforms. However, a launch date for when it will begin working on tvOS and iOS has not been officially announced.
“More platforms will come online this fall as the rollout continues toward the postseason and Super Bowl LXI, extending 4K HDR further across how fans experience live sports with ESPN.”
As it has been previously, ESPN has only aired certain events in 4K HDR, with it most recently doing so this past weekend for one of its many college football games. However, those streams were only made available through the ESPN 4K which is not currently available on every streaming platform out there. This new update by the network seems to fix a lot of those issues.
What are your thoughts on this update coming to ESPN, as well as the Apple TV 4K and iPhone? Comment below or let us know on X at @appleosophy.
