CBS Sports Chief Sees Live 4K Sports Taking Same Slow Migration Path as HD
CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus thinks broadcasting live sports in 4K will take a slow and methodical migration path, reminiscent of other network moves into new technologies, he told the NAB Show New York’s TV2020 conference Wednesday. “It’s going to be just like high-definition,” he said.
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When HD first came out, “it was very expensive,” said McManus. “A lot of companies, including CBS, did side-by-side telecasts.” CBS found a “major sponsor” for the HD conversion in Sony, which “paid for the upgrading of the trucks and the upgrading of the production, and we rolled it out fairly slowly,” he said. “Some stations were able to broadcast in HD, and some weren’t. Eventually, the mobile-unit companies upgraded so that all the cameras were HD. The stations upgraded so they could receive HD, and at some point, I think you’ll see the same thing happen with the next generation, whether it’s 8K or whether it’s 4K.”
CBS has done “a number of broadcasts” testing 4K at the Masters and other pro golf events “where DirecTV has come in, and DirecTV has paid us to produce a 4K package of limited holes, not the entire show,” said McManus. “They paid for that just like Sony paid for HD. So I think you’ll see migration into whatever the next technology is. You’ll see that being much more prevalent in the future.”
It’s conceivable the NFL “might” ultimately require their TV network partners to broadcast games in 4K “if it was state-of-the-art” and if stations “around the country were able to broadcast in 4K,” said McManus. “The good news is, the television networks don’t really need to be pushed, as far as I can tell, for the new technology. We were the first ones to do NFL football in HD, so I think you’ll still see the networks being aggressive.”
McManus doesn’t know “enough about the future of the technology involved” to predict when a large enough body of local stations will have the capability to broadcast NFL football in 4K, he said: “We could be doing a lot more programs exclusively in 4K.” The reason it's not is because “the stations don’t have the ability to broadcast in that format,” he said. “Hopefully, the technology will catch up just like it did with HD." McManus thinks 4K “falls more in the category of HD than it does some of the newer technologies that just have not been applicable to sports coverage,” citing 3D and virtual reality.