Want to watch Euro 2024 in 4K? You might be out of luck...

Want to watch Euro 2024 in 4K? You might be out of luck...
(Image credit: Future)

If you're hoping to enjoy Euro 2024 next summer on your shiny 4K TV, you might be out of luck. The tournament reportedly won't be produced in 4K, and hence won't be shown in the resolution on any TV channels or streaming services, flatpanelshd reports.

The announcement was made at the Sky Sports Summit 2023, and subsequently confirmed by broadcaster Karl Petermichl, head of distribution at Austrian broadcaster ORF.

The tournament could be broadcast in upscaled 4K. While this would be better than HD, picture quality wouldn't be as good as proper 4K.

Sports like football are usually seen as a great opportunity to showcase innovative viewing technologies like 4K and HDR. The Paris 2024 Olympics are planned to be broadcast in 4K, while the 2023 Super Bowl was screened in 4K HDR (though admittedly only through the Comcast Xfinity streaming service). So to see a big event like Euro 2024 miss out on 4K is a major blow to the technology, and will likely slow adoption.

Euro 2020 (which was delayed until 2021 because of the pandemic) was watched by over 5.2 billion people cumulatively over the course of the tournament, according to FIFA. Not producing the event in 4K seems like a real missed opportunity to show what 4K can do.

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Joe Svetlik

Joe has been writing about tech for 17 years, first on staff at T3 magazine, then in a freelance capacity for Stuff, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Men's Health, GQ, The Mirror, Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and many more (including What Hi-Fi?). His specialities include all things mobile, headphones and speakers that he can't justifying spending money on.