Lionel Messi playing a La Liga fixture against Athletic Bilbao

Surjit Patowary

Movistar hailed for 8k-like coverage of La Liga games

La Liga, Movistar

The Spanish pay television channel Movistar La Liga have made the beautiful game of football as we know it, even more beautiful with their extraordinarily clear streams of La Liga games.

The channel owned by Telefónica and operated by Movistar+ telecasts games of the Spanish first division as well as the Segunda Division in an unprecedented high quality.

The 8k-like quality stream offers clarity like never before, as it offers the spectators an incredible insight into the sport: almost as if one is right next to the players in the football stadiums.

The stream of the footage of FC Barcelona’s match against Athletic Bilbao at the Nou Camp was aired live on the Movistar app, in a quality of video footage that is unprecedented in football broadcasting.

The broadcast involved almost 8k-quality of streaming, the highest display resolution prevalent at the moment: and the difference in its quality was clear.

The 8k quality is almost clearer than real life itself, as it brings the spectators close to the action on a football field, right from the comfort of their living rooms. One can almost easily spot the tiniest of detail possible: even a tiny drop of sweat dripping from the players’ foreheads.

Barcelona won the home outing by a 2-1 margin, assisted by goals from Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann. As the Frenchman scored Barcelona’s eventual winner on the night, a clip of the players congratulating him was posted on Twitter in almost 8k-like quality.

The clip of the players’ huddled celebration comprised of a quality never seen before in football broadcasting, as certain fans on Twitter asked the question whether La Liga was indeed the first league amongst the top five European leagues to telecast a game in such quality.

The resolution could well be the future of football telecasting as we resort to technological intervention to improve the viewer’s experience of the beautiful game: if players like Messi and Griezmann were not too good already in 4k, they certainly look twice as good now.

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