The 2024 Olympic Games are about to kick off in Paris, France, and it will be extra special for cable TV subscribers. Comcast has announced some technical upgrades coming to its Olympics coverage, including Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos audio for some events.
NBCUniversal still has broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games in the United States (until 2032 at the earliest), and it will shows games and highlights across “NBC, USA Network, E!, CNBC, GOLF Channel, Telemundo, Universo, two new Paris Extra channels featuring 24/7 Olympics programming, as well as streaming on Peacock.” That includes some coverage on local NBC affiliate channels, many of which are accessible with a free TV antenna.
For events broadcasted on the USA Network, NBCUniversal will offer 4K with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos immersive audio. The upgraded quality will be available through the Xfinity Stream app, as well as Altice, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV/DirecTV Stream, Dish, Fubo, Verizon, YouTube TV, and select other services. However, Olympics coverage on the Peacock streaming service won’t be in 4K. Sling TV just rolled out 4K support for the first time, and Olympics coverage on the USA Network was confirmed as one of the upcoming 4K broadcasts.
Comcast has also built an Olympics hub in the Sports section of the Xfinity X1, which brings together all the Olympics coverage from all of NBC’s networks with sorted categories. It will also include “other Olympic-related programming from streaming services such as YouTube, Netflix, Apple TV+, MAX, Prime Video and more.”
Interestingly, the games aren’t being produced in 4K, since that’s a significant cost and bandwidth increase over standard 1080p broadcasts. NBC’s facilities will produce the games in 1080p HDR, which will then be upconverted to 4K for distribution on TV services.
Comcast said in a press release, “Today’s launch follows a successful trial of the technology conducted during the 2024 Super Bowl. Moving forward, enhanced 4K will be the new quality standard for live sports delivered in 4K on X1.”
Source: Comcast, NewscastStudio
