Swiss public broadcaster SRG will transmit the FIFA Football World Cup 2018 on its channels live in Ultra HD. This was confirmed to Broadband TV News by an SRG spokesman.
As the first cooperation partner, SRG has won telecommunications group Swisscom which will show the games in ultra-high resolution on its IPTV platform Swisscom TV. For reception, customers require the Ultra HD-capable Swisscom TV box and a corresponding TV set.
Swisscom TV will broadcast all FIFA World Cup matches in Ultra HD which are shown by SRG’s channels SRF, RTS and RSI, the SRG spokesman explained. An exception is the group qualification phase: The last two matches of each of the eight groups take place simultaneously. Since these games will be covered by SRG’s channels in parallel, only one of the two games will be shown in Ultra HD. Thus, with the exception of eight games, all the other 64 FIFA World Cup games will be shown in the new video format on SRG’s channels.
According to the SRG spokesman, the broadcaster is currently in negotiations with other platform operators, both cable companies and IPTV providers, regarding the FIFA World Cup transmission in Ultra HD. He added, however, that SRG’s channels will not be offered in Ultra HD via satellite.
In Germany, rights owners ARD and ZDF are cooperating with Sky Deutschland: The pay-TV broadcaster will transmit 25 top matches of the FIFA World Cup in Ultra HD. The public broadcasters will show all 64 games in SD and HD resolution.
For the first time, international football association FIFA has commissioned the production of all World Cup matches in Ultra HD/HDR format this year.
