On March 25, the British broadcaster BT Sport captured and broadcast the Saracens Vs Bristol Bears Gallagher rugby championship match live and in Ultra HD 8K HDR, offered to a selection of lucky households in the United Kingdom.
8K live broadcast of a rugby match in the UK, world premiere
This is a world first which follows a test already carried out in 2020, during which a Europa League football match (Arsenal-Olympiakos) was captured live in UHD 8K but for private for various technical validations.
This new test goes further and was intended to gauge the reliability of such distribution directly to homes. BT Sport has partnered with Sony for camera technology, and with Samsung who have provided QN800 8K UHD TVs for image reception. No confirmation on when BT Sport-branded live 8K broadcasts will soon arrive for the consumer market has been given, but this test represents a significant step in the right direction.
8K TV content, sport before films, series and documentaries?
While we anticipated the availability of Ultra HD 8K content primarily via streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, sports channels (also of the OTT type) could well toast them.