Thursday Night Football Is Now Being Broadcast In 4K HDR

The Verge’s Nilay Patel and Chris Welch do a deep dive into the technology that has finally made it possible to watch live football games in 4K HDR; while the nerdy details are interesting, the most exciting part for sports fans really is in the headline—the fact that that we can now watch our favorite pro teams with incredible detail and clarity (this comment won’t have aged well in five years) is huge.

It’s worth pointing out that the advancement of augmented reality in recent years has really made NFL games a lot more enjoyable. In just a few years, we went from only having those superimposed, yellow first down lines to having crazy run patterns and play breakdowns served up almost instantly, and they make complicated plays much easier to follow. It seems a bit odd that those effects came before 4K HDR, but I'm glad we’re finally getting caught up, and I’m sure this will be just as transformative. Hopefully 4K HDR broadcasting will soon expand to all NFL games and top college matchups as well (go Vols).