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Is NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in 4K?

David Satin
David covers the biggest news stories, live events, premieres, and informational pieces for The Streamable. Before joining TS, he wrote extensively for Screen Rant and has years of experience writing about the entertainment and streaming industries. He's a Broncos fan, streams on his Toshiba Fire TV, and his favorites include "Andor," "Rings of Power," and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."
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David Satin

March Madness is sweeping across the United States once again. The 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament starts Thursday, March 16 and will continue through Sunday, April 2 when the national championship game is played.

Many fans might be wondering if the tournament’s games will be broadcast in ultra-high-definition 4K. After all, 4K offers quadruple the number of pixels that 1080p HD streaming features, making it the ideal way to watch live sporting events and ensuring viewers don’t miss a single shot, foul, or steal.

More and more live sporting events are being made available in 4K. In 2023, FOX broadcast Super Bowl LVII in 4K, and simultaneously streamed it in the same resolution for free on the FOX Sports app. Unfortunately, March Madness fans won’t have the same experience; tournament games will be broadcast on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, none of which offer 4K content at this time.

The biggest problem facing the wider offering of 4K sporting events is the slow adoption and implementation of the technology by broadcasters. It’s a lot like the transition from analog broadcasting to digital transmissions that the TV world made back in 2009. For more networks and affiliates to start offering 4K content, they’ll need to make major equipment upgrades, and for most the technology is still just too expensive.

That will change as manufacturing improvements and market competition drives the cost down. Until then, however, FOX will be the only one of the big four broadcast networks to offer content in 4K.

There are several live TV streaming services that offer you the option to stream select content in 4K, though this is of course dependent on the channel you want to watch broadcasting that content in UHD in the first place.

The first such service is fuboTV. This is a fantastic streaming service for the sports fanatics out there, as it offers a ton of channels like MLB Network, NBA TV, NFL Network and many more. Plans start at $85.98 per month, including the regional sports network fee that will be included in most subscriptions. The service’s help page has a fantastic list of upcoming events that will be available in 4K, and it offers 4K streaming at no extra charge to users.

The other service that offers 4K streaming is YouTube TV. It’s a little cheaper than fuboTV initially at $64.99 per month, but it doesn’t offer 4K capability for free. To get that, you’ll need an add-on that costs an additional $19.99 per month. YouTube TV is a good all-around live TV service, but it doesn’t have as many sports channels as fuboTV, and it doesn’t come with a free trial like Fubo does.

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    Fubo

    Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 top channels that start at $79.99 per month. This plan includes local channels, 25 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). In total, you should expect to pay about $91.99 per month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”

    …

    The streaming service does not carry channels from WarnerMedia-owned (CNN, TBS, and TNT), A+E (A&E, History Channel, and Lifetime), and AMC Networks (AMC, BBC America, and WE tv). So, in our experience, if you are looking to watch the NBA, which heavily plays on TBS and TNT, you may want to look at another live TV streaming provider.

    But for other sports fans, especially those who want to stream local sports, Fubo is a great option in our opinion. They recently announced adding Bally Sports RSNs to their channel lineup and it is the least expensive option to get RSNs in many markets like Altitude, AT&T Sports, Fox Sports, Marquee, MSG, NBC Sports, and NESN. (Take a look at the full list of Fubo’s sports channels.)

    Fubo also includes MLB Network, NBA TV, NFL Network, NFL RedZone , NHL Network, and beIN Sports (which is not available on most services). You can add Fox Soccer Plus as part of the International Sports Plus add-on for $6/month.

    You can add the fubo Extra ($8) to add ~43 channels including Cooking Channel and GSN.

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    YouTube TV

    YouTube TV is a live TV streaming service with more than 60 channels for $72.99/month. This plan includes local channels, 32 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs) in select markets. The service includes an unlimited DVR.

    …

    With the recent addition of Viacom channels (BET, MTV, Comedy Central, etc.) to the service, they are only without Hallmark and A+E Networks (Lifetime, History, A&E).

    They recently added NFL Network and new Sports Plus add-on which include channels like NFL RedZone for $11 a month.

    YouTube TV offers select 4K content, including some live sports and on-demand shows, as part of their 4K Plus add-on. The 4K Plus add-on is $9.99 a month and also includes offline downloads and unlimited streams on your home network.

    If you want a cheaper service with many of the entertainment channels on YouTube TV, you can subscribe to Philo which includes A+E, Discovery, Viacom, Hallmark, and other channels for just $20 a month after a 7-Day Free Trial.

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David Satin
David covers the biggest news stories, live events, premieres, and informational pieces for The Streamable. Before joining TS, he wrote extensively for Screen Rant and has years of experience writing about the entertainment and streaming industries. He's a Broncos fan, streams on his Toshiba Fire TV, and his favorites include "Andor," "Rings of Power," and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."
Read full bio ›
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