As live sports becomes a bigger focus for the Peacock streaming service, so does the picture and sound quality.
To that end, the NBC-owned service plans to support Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos object-based surround sound for sporting events. Peacock will roll out these formats for its Sunday Night Football, MLB, and NBA coverage over the course of 2026, including support for Dolby Vision 2 and Dolby AC-4 audio.
Dolby Vision upgrade
Compared to standard dynamic range video, high dynamic range allows for greater color detail, particularly in highlights and shadows, making the picture look more vibrant overall. Dolby Vision is a proprietary HDR format that can further optimize the picture on a scene-by-scene basis, while also taking into account the properties of the TV.
While Peacock has already offered some content in HDR, including NBA games and its 2024 Summer Olympics coverage, it’s now committing to support Dolby Vision across a wider range of sporting events. That support will also extend to Dolby Vision 2, which offers further optimizations based on the type of TV and other factors such as room lighting.
The upshot is that sports on Peacock should look more realistic, at least on compatible TVs. While many current TVs offer Dolby Vision support, none with Dolby Vision 2 are available today, although we’ll likely see a bunch of them announced at CES this week.
On the audio side, Dolby Atmos takes advantage of the upward-firing speakers on some soundbars and multi-channel home theater systems to bring a dimension of height to surround sound. Peacock has already offered Atmos for its Olympics and NBA coverage, but now it’s committing to the format for football and baseball as well.
Sports focus
The Dolby Vision announcement fits with Peacock’s recent pivot toward live sports. It’s now a major source of NBA and WNBA coverage, and it will begin carrying MLB games on Sundays this year. That’s in addition to the streamer’s existing sports coverage, which includes English Premier League, Notre Dame Football, and some Big Ten football and basketball. (There’s no word on Dolby Vision and Atmos reaching those sporting events.)
The infusion of live sports was one of Peacock’s justifications for a major price hike in July, from $8 to $11 per month for the ad-supported plan, and from $14 to $17 per month without ads. At least now you’ll get a boost in picture and audio quality to go with the higher prices.
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