DirecTV and Sony have both announced that Saturday's UFC 200 pay-per-view event will be available for viewing in 4K.
DirecTV (NYSE: T) will charge users with the necessary Genie set-tops and televisions $64.95, a $5 premium over the HD feed for the fight. The 4K announcement follows earlier UltraHD sports presentations by the satellite company of the PGA's Masters Tournament and several Major League Baseball games. It will be the first time DirecTV has used its 4K channel, 106 on the program guide, for a PPV event.
Sony will partner with NeuLion, meanwhile, to stream the event via the UFC app on Google Play, making it available for users with Sony HDR Ultra HD TVs. Google will charge $59.95 for 4K, HD and SD versions of the event.
It's the first 4K presentation ever for the popular pro fighting organization.
Neither DirecTV nor Google has said how many users are capable of viewing their 4K presentations — or how many they expect to sign up for the PPV event. UFC 200 is reeling from the disqualification of headliner Jon Jones, who tested positive for banned substances this week. Daniel Comier will instead fight Anderson Silva in the main event, shown live from Las Vegas.
The undercard will feature Brock Lesnar against Mark Hunt.
NeuLion will handle encoding and other video services for Google's live stream.
"To be the first company, with UFC, to deliver a UFC event, and particularly UFC 200, in 4K, live, to consumers is a huge milestone for us," said Roy Reichbach, president and CEO of NeuLion, in a statement. "The digital experience we create with our partners like UFC is second-to-none. We are excited to build off this milestone and continue to make a huge impact in the digital industry with additional live OTT events in 4K."
For more:
- read this Engadget story
- read this TV Predictions story
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