BT Sport Ultra HD price announced: £15/month for 4K footy

BT has announced how much you’ll pay to watch select Premier League and Champions League games in 4K Ultra HD – £15/month. 

Europe’s first live 4K Ultra HD pay TV channel kicks off on Wednesday, August 2 and will stream the Chelsea vs Arsenal FA Community Shield match in Ultra HD at 50fps. 

For your money you get access to all of the other BT Sport channels – BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT ESPN and BT Sport Europe – in both standard and high definition. The BT Entertainment Ultra HD package as it’s being called also includes 47 premium channels including 13 channels in HD and 9 kids channels. 

BT Entertainment Ultra HD also includes the new Humax DTR-T4000 set top box which comes with a 1TB hard drive. The box itself is free but there’s a one-off £44 charge for installation. 

In addition to paying £15/month, you’ll need to take out a BT Infinity FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) service. According to BT, this can either be a BT Infinity 1 (up to 38Mbps) package or a BT Infinity 2 (up to 76Mbps) package. 

BT also says that you’ll need to be getting download speeds fast enough to support 4K Ultra HD streams, but has declined to say what the minimum required speed is. Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings has said that you need around 20-25Mbps of spare bandwidth in order to properly enjoy Ultra HD streams. 

Herein lies a potential problem. FTTC services use copper lines to complete the so-called ‘last mile’ – the part of the broadband connection that sits between your house and the green street cabinet. The part of the line between the cabinet and the exchange is fibre optic cable, hence the name. 

As with ADSL, the longer the copper last mile, the slower your download speed will be. So while you might be able to order BT Infinity 1 at your house, it might not be fast enough for BT Sport Ultra HD. 

While that might be a price issue for some, BT is making it easier for more folks to get on board with the 4K revolution by offering buyers a £500 discount off of LG 4K Ultra HD TVs. 

BT hasn’t said which exact model (or models) you’ll be able to get money off of, or even confirmed what the minimum requirements are.