MLB Network, DirecTV Bring 4K Baseball to U.S. With Up to 25 UHD Showcase Games

Friday's Dodgers-Giants game will be first live UHD telecast of an MLB game in U.S.

Beginning Friday and throughout the regular season, AT&T will bring DirecTV customers a lineup of MLB Network Showcase games televised live in 4K/UHD. The customers will be able to view Friday’s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, marking the first-ever live 4K/UHD telecast of a Major League Baseball game in the U.S.

“The 4K/UHD experience on DirecTV will bring America’s pastime to life like never before in the convenience of the living room,” says Dan York, chief content officer, AT&T Entertainment Group. “As a leader in sports programming, we’re continuing to deliver more live events in 4K/UHD and finding new ways to entertain our customers.”

Throughout the regular season, DirecTV’s subscribers who have the ULTIMATE Package or higher and compatible 4K/UHD equipment can watch up to 25 MLB Network Showcase games in 4K/UHD, beginning with the games below (subject to blackouts):

April 15 – Giants @ Dodgers
April 19 – Cubs @ Cardinals
April 29 – Yankees @ Red Sox
April 30 – Yankees @ Red Sox

“We’re proud of the high standard of quality we’ve established with every aspect of our MLB Network Showcase game telecasts since MLB Network’s launch in 2009,” says MLB Network President Rob McGlarry.“Thanks to this new collaboration with AT&T, we’re excited to continue to raise the bar of our game productions for baseball fans all season long.”

Last week, DirecTV teamed with CBS Sports to produce and deliver the first live 4K/UHD sports broadcast in the U.S.: Amen Corner from The Masters. In conjunction, DirecTV launched three 4K channels: a 24-hour channel featuring a mix of nature documentaries and original content from AUDIENCE (Channel 104), a PPV movie channel (Channel 105), and an event channel featuring live and PPV events (Channel 106). DirecTV was also the first multichannel video provider to deliver 4K/UHD video-on-demand programming, doing so in November 2014. 

Customers looking to view the live 4K/UHD experience for the MLB Network Showcase games on DirecTV will need the following: a DirecTV Ultimate or Premier Package subscription, the latest Genie HD DVR (HR54), either a DirecTV 4K Ready TV or a compatible 4K TV connected to the latest 4K Genie Mini.

The MLB Network Showcase 4K/UHD slate and CBS’s Amen Corner production at The Masters follow an explosion of live 4K sports coverage in Canada: Rogers Sportsnet and TSN are producing MLB (Toronto Blue Jays), NBA (Toronto Raptors), and NHL games live in 4K. Across the pond, Rai and Eutelsat announced on Tuesday that they will team up to produce seven matches of the EURO 2016 championship this summer. This was just the latest major European soccer event to be produced in 4K, including El Clasico featuring Barcelona-Madrid last week (produced by MediaPro and streamed by NeuLion). In addition, BT Sport Ultra HD, launched last July, produced a full slate of live sports events in 4K for its UK subscribers, including UEFA Champions League, Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Aviva Premiership Rugby, and MotoGP.