By Thierry Fautier, Managing Director, Your Media Transformation, former President of the Ultra HD Forum. Initially published in May 2024, updated in November 2024.
Introduction
In the year 2024, as we prepare for the Paris Olympics, which will be produced entirely in UHD HDR for the first time, I want to provide updates on the current state of live sports streaming in UHD format, focusing on the US market, where we see the most vibrant activity. We will review the top OTT services, including:
- Amazon Prime with NFL Thursday Ticket
- Amazon NWSL
- Apple TV+ with MLB and MLS
- Fox Sports (FIFA World Cup, College football, MLB, NFL)
- NBC college football
- Peacock with EPL (English Premiere’s League)
- Peacock UHD HDR streaming of Sunday Night Football
- Max with NBA games
- Paramount+ with the European Champions’ League
- NBA League Pass on NBA.com
- NFL Game Pass
- NHL NESN 360
- MLB all
- F1
As well as vMVPD services carrying sports content:
- YouTube TV
- FuboTV
The Data
According to the Ultra HD Forum, UHD video can be either 2160p in SDR/HDR or 1080p in HDR. Here, we will focus solely on the HDR aspects of OTT live sports streaming services. We will also examine which services have deployed low latency, another crucial aspect of user experience. Below is a table showing the attributes of the OTT services mentioned above:
| Service | Sport | League | Resolution | HDR | UHD | Low Latency |
| Xfinity | Olympics | NA | 2160p60 | Dolby Vision | Yes | Yes (1) |
| Fox Sports | Soccer | FIFA | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Fox Sports | Baseball | MLB | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Fox Sports | College football | PAC12 | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Fox Sports | Super Bowl LVIII | NFL | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Fox Sports | Football | NFL | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Peacock | Sunday Night Football | NFL | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| MLB app | Baseball | MLB | 2160p60 (4) | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| NESN 360 | Hockey | NHL | 2160p60 (4) | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Max | Basketball | NBA | 1080p60 | Dolby Vision | Yes | No |
| Paramount+ | Super Bowl LVIII | NFL | 1080p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Peacock | Kentucky Derby | NA | 1080p60 | HDR10 | Yes | |
| NBC | College football | NFL | 1080p60 | HDR10 | Yes | |
| Amazon Prime | Football | NFL | 1080p60 | HDR10 | Yes | Yes (2) |
| Amazon Prime | Soccer | NWSL | 1080p60 | HDR10 | Yes | Yes (2) |
| Apple TV+ | Baseball | MLB | 1080p60 | HDR 10 | Yes | No |
| Paramount+ | Soccer (Champions League) | UEFA | 1080p60 | SDR (3) | No | No |
| Peacock | Soccer | EPL | 1080p60 | SDR | No | No |
| Apple TV+ | Soccer | MLS | 1080p60 | SDR | No | No |
| NBA.com | Basketball | NBA | 1080p60 | SDR | No | No |
| NFL+ | Football | NHL | 1080p60 | SDR | No | No |
| F1 app | Formula 1 | F1 | 1080p60 | SDR | No | No |
List of DTC services
(1) CMAF LL (HLS/DASH)
(2) Using Sye UDP protocol
(3) not to be mixed with production of the final, which was in 1080p HDR outside the US.
(4) production in 1080p HDR
The table below shows what content the listed vMVPD services are streaming when provided to them in UHD format:
| Service | Sport | League | Video Resolution | HDR | UHD | Low Latency |
YouTube TV | Super Bowl LVIII | NFL | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Football Sunday Ticket | NFL | 1080p60 | SDR | No | No | |
| FuboTV | Super Bowl LVIII | NFL | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
| Soccer | EPL | 2160p60 | HDR10 | Yes | No |
List of vMVP services
Analysis
Here are my observations on the selected Sports OTT services:
- Nine services offer episodic UHD 4K HDR streaming services, Peacock for Sunday Night Football, Fox Sports with NFL, MLB, FIFA WC, Super Bowl LVII and College football, MLB and NHL and Xfinity (Paris ’24 Olympics) in low latency, to be complemented with 3 vMVPD services (YouTube TV , Fubo TV)
- Seven services offer episodic UHD 1080p HDR streaming services, MAX with Dolby Vision for basketball and Amazon Prime with Thursday Night Football and NWSL in low latency, Apple TV+ for MLB, Paramount+ for Super Bowl LVIII (’24) and Peacock for Kentucky Derby.
- All other services, unfortunately, stream in 1080p SDR and are thus not in UHD.
- There’s more variety in vMVPD services. For instance, YouTube TV follows the source format, streaming NFL Sunday Ticket in 1080p SDR but streaming the Super Bowl in 2160p HDR. FuboTV tends to distribute in 2160p for both special and regular events, reflecting its brand positioning. An interesting finding regarding the EPL is that it is available in both HD (1080p SDR) and UHD (2160p HDR). Peacock opts for HD, while FuboTV chooses UHD.
- Regarding latency, Amazon Prime streams in low latency using its Sye proprietary UDP protocol and Xfinity is using CMAF Low latency mode to stream in both HLS and DASH. Other services have not yet deployed low latency, for which we expect to use CMAF LL with HLS/DASH.
HDR Analytics
- Based on the total amount of services (26), we have calculated the share of the different HDR formats in this market segment.
We see that HDR10 is the first format deployed with 68%, followed by SDR in 1080p, so no UHD (25%), and Dolby Vision deployed at 7%. It is interesting to note that no service is deployed in 2160p SDR, which confirms the consensus that increasing resolution without HDR is of no use.
Resolution Analytics
We report here all the different resolutions used:
2160p SDR (not deployed)
- 2160p HDR
- 1080p HDR
- 1080p SDR (not UHD)
- 2160p SDR (not deployed)
We see the 2160p HDR is deployed at 43%, no 2160p60 SDR which is good as it does not bring much vs 1080p HDR (25%), 21% of services are in 1080p60 HDR, meaning the UHD (2160/1080p HDR) ratio is 75%, 25% still in legacy HD (1080p SDR) .
The Ultra HD Forum Members’ Contribution
Max (part of WBD) was previously part of AT&T and was an early member of the Ultra HD Forum.
FOX has been a member of the Ultra HD Forum for several years.
NBC (Peacock) is a founding member of the Ultra HD Forum.
Amazon became a member in 2023.
The encoding companies powering deployments at Max, Peacock, and Amazon Prime are also members of the Ultra HD Forum. Thus, a correlation exists between being an Ultra HD Forum member and being a UHD space leader.
Conclusion
First, we are happy to report that 75% of US sports streaming events are in UHD format (2160p or 1080p HDR), which is a firm number.
It’s encouraging to see that for some major events like Super Bowl LVII & LVIII, Kentucky Derby, FIFA WC’22 and the Olympics, UHD is being streamed in either 2160p60 HDR or 1080p60 HDR
It’s even more encouraging to see regular events streamed in 2160p HDR (Peacock NFL, Fox Sports NFL, MLB, NFL, College football) or in 1080p HDR (MAX basketball, Amazon Prime TNF/SWNL, Apple TV+ MLB).
Low latency has not been deployed outside Amazon Prime yet, but we expect changes, especially for content not exclusive to OTT platforms.
The next big event will be the Paris Olympics, where we should see many 2160p HDR streaming services flourish. Stay tuned!
