DirecTV and Fox will broadcast the first college basketball games in 4K

Back in November, we wrote about Fox’s new deal with AT&T, which included providing DirecTV customers “with access to 4K Ultra HD content from Fox sports properties including MLB regular season and playoff games, top college football and basketball games, NASCAR races and FIFA World Cup games.” We’re now starting to see some specifics there, with AT&T announcing Thursday that they and Fox will partner to broadcast two upcoming college basketball games in 4K ultra high definition.

According to AT&T, this will be the first live 4K production of NCAA men’s hoops in 4K. (We have seen some recordings of NCAA games in 4K, including the Final Four in 2013, but that was for TVs in the Georgia Dome, not for broadcast.) The games in question are Cal vs. Stanford Friday and Washington vs. UCLA on March 1. Here are more details from AT&T’s release:

AT&T and Fox Sports will tip off their collaboration to bring fans more live sports in 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) with the broadcast of the California vs. Stanford basketball game on DIRECTV. The first live 4K production of NCAA men’s hoops will be this Friday, followed by Washington vs. UCLA on March 1 in 4K UHD.

The games will be broadcast in 4K on DirecTV’s dedicated 4K channel, channel 106. More information on what you’ll need to view it in 4K can be found on AT&T’s site here. There will be a standard HD simulcast on FS1 as well.

This adds to the pushes into 4K AT&T and DirecTV have been making. Their first 4K broadcast, and the first one in the U.S., came at the Masters last year, and they’ve since broadcast MLB and NBA games, UFC and PGA events (including last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am), Premier League soccer, Notre Dame football, and the Rio Olympics. This is the first one they’re doing in conjunction with Fox, but it’s part of a bigger partnership there as well. We’ll see where it goes next, but this is more evidence that these companies are strong believers 4K is here to stay.