The world’s biggest sporting event is back.
The 2024 Olympics are taking place in Paris, with a spectacular opening ceremony on the Seine, and many fan-favourite athletes, such as Simone Biles for the US gymnastics team and Andy Murray, who is competing in his final tennis tournament on behalf of Team Great Britain.
Some events started on Wednesday, July 24, but the opening ceremony will begin today, Friday, July 26. The closing ceremony will take place on Sunday, August 11, 2024.
You might want to watch all this action in 4K – and unlike the Euros, you can. However, there are some limitations you should be aware of.
Here’s how to watch the Paris 2024 Olympics in the UK and US. Note that How To Geek points out that the events are not filmed in 4K, but rather upscaled by distributors.
Paris 2024 Olympics in 4K in the UK
There is only one way to watch the Olympic Games in UHD 4K in the UK and that is by watching Eurosport’s linear channels: Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2.
These services are available to satellite pay TV subscribers, meaning those with packages on Sky, Virgin Media and EE TV/BT TV. You’ll also need a TV and set-top box that supports 4K.
Cordbusters confirmed that the BBC will not broadcast the Olympics in 4K.
We also reached out to Warner and learned that while Discovery+ will offer HDR streams for the Games, the streaming platform is instead focused on providing enough bandwidth to stream up to 54 simultaneous streams. This is likely the same reason why BBC iPlayer isn’t streaming 4K content.
This means that if you receive Eurosport via Discovery+ on the internet, via services such as Sky Stream or EE TV, you will not be able to watch it in 4K.
List of presenters for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in the United Kingdom.
List of presenters for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in the United Kingdom.
Olympics on Discovery+
List of presenters for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in the United Kingdom.
Olympics on Discovery+
Olympics on Discovery+
The 2024 Paris Olympics in 4K in the USA
In the US, the only way to watch the 4K UHD broadcasts of the Paris Olympics is via USA Network. Some events will also include support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Audio. As in the UK, you’ll also need a 4K-compatible TV and set-top box.
Comcast Xfinity cable customers have access to it through their cable plan, but How To Geek has confirmed that users should also be able to watch UHD games on this channel through the Xfinity Stream app, Altice, Cox, DirecTV/DirecTV Stream, Dish, Fubo, Sling TV, Verizon, and YouTube TV.
According to Forbes, the 4K UHD broadcast will be available starting July 24, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET, every day of the Games. Unfortunately, it will be interrupted for the Opening Ceremony.
Unfortunately, flexible streaming platform Peacock will not support 4K coverage, according to Deadline.
