re: ESPN monopoly power: “You’ll take 720p broadcasts and like it.”

quote:

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Fox shoots at 1080p and upscales it to 4K.

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They do this because of the inordinate cost of a native 4k broadcast (Which ESPN does a few times a year).

Native 4k broadcasting is not just simply plugging in 4k camera where HD cameras once were. It's 4x the data to transmit, which means more and heavier equipment even down to the camera cables. It also requires significantly more computing power to process 4x the data in real time and broadcast it out.

It just isn't cost effective to broadcast most sporting events in native 4k yet.