BT has just unveiled the August lineup and pricing for its brand new BT Sport Ultra HD channel, the first live 4K UHD channel to launch in the UK.
The new channel will launch featuring the FA Community Shield contest between Arsenal and Chelsea, live from Wembley in all its super-sharp, 8.3million pixel glory on August 2. It will then kick off the new Premier League season with the competition's first game, Manchester United facing off against Tottenham Hotspur in the lunchtime match on August 8.
The rollout of live UHD content will be relatively slow, with only a further two Premier League games and the Silverstone MotoGP being shown on BT Sport Ultra HD during August. The big coup for BT though is its exclusive rights to showing UEFA Champions League games, which will definitely feature in 4K UHD-o-vision at some point in the coming season.
There will also be Aviva Premiership rugby and FA Cup action hitting the Ultra HD channel too.
Price of progress
BT Sport Ultra HD will come as part of the top BT TV package, dubbed Entertainment Ultra HD, with a £15/month price tag. For that you, of course, gain access to the sporty UHD goodness, get the new 1TB Ultra HD YouView+ box, 47 premium TV channels and up to 80 Freeview channels.
The new YouView+ box is the Humax DTR-T4000, the first UHD set-top box in the UK. It has been co-developed between Humax and BT to deliver the 3840 x 2160 visuals needed for the new Ultra HD channels.
BT TV is understandably excited about the new venture; the first 4K UHD channel ever to launch in the UK. It's quite a boon for the company.
"BT Sport Ultra HD is the next step in high definition TV and provides a truly cinematic viewing experience and is available only on BT TV," said Delia Bushell, MD of BT TV and BT Sport. "The BT Sport Ultra HD channel will bring you closer to the action than ever before. The picture quality is absolutely amazing – it's four times the detail of today's high definition TV. We are proud to be innovating and leading the UK TV market with our Entertainment Ultra HD package which offers customers the best in premium TV."
There are caveats though.
You will have to have either BT Infinity 1 or 2 as well as a line capable of supporting the speeds necessary to get the UHD stream from BT Sport Ultra HD. Looking at Netflix's UHD offering that requires you to have at least 25Mbps downloads on your home network.
You will also need to fork out another £44 to get the new set-top box installed in your home too.
In return though BT will give you a £500 voucher off an LG UHD TV, which might help if you accidentally ordered the service for your 1080p panel...
