Premier League games are finally coming in HDR, thanks to BT Sport

Looking to up your game when it comes to high-quality sports broadcasts? BT Sport Ultimate is the first UK TV channel to broadcast live events in high dynamic range – or, as you may know it, HDR – promising enhanced images for Premier League matches and other sporting events.

Technically a rebrand of the existing BT Sport 4K UHD channel, the newly-named BT Sport Ultimate will be able to show off broadcasts in Ultra HD and HDR, while BT TV viewers will even get Dolby Atmos to let them enjoy the atmosphere at venues in immersive surround sound.

While most new TVs these days are shouting about 4K resolution for sharper, more detailed images, HDR is what makes those extra pixels really count. With an expanded range of colours, and sharper contrast between them, everything from footballers' colourful kits to blades of grass on a golf course will jump out more than ever.

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Where, when, and how

The first live HDR match on BT Sport Ultimate will be Liverpool v Manchester City on Sunday 4, August 2019.

You can currently only watch in HDR through the BT Sport Ultimate mobile App, for BT TV and EE customers, though it's likely it will be hitting TV screens in the near future too.

The Dolby Atmos audio and 4K video quality, though, are available for television, so make sure you have a 4K TV capable of that before you start squinting to see the picture difference, not to mention a BT TV set-top box, which comes with BT TV Total Entertainment, Max, or Max HD subscriptions.

While HDR works slightly differently on mobile – upping the brightness in colourful sections of the screen – EE 5G pay monthly subscribers will be able to see the enhanced picture on the BT Sport app. 

A press release for the channel launch says BT Sport Ultimate will "soon extend to other BT Sport customers, such as EE 4G pay monthly customers and those who watch via the BT Sport app or via Sky".

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