Deeper Dive—How Epix got its 4K content onto the Apple TV

The concept is simple enough: People have devices like Apple TV that support 4K playback and networks like Epix have 4K content to offer. But the process of connecting those dots is more complicated. Epix earlier this year announced plans to make 4K content available to its subscribers. This week, the network revealed that Dish Network and T-Mobile’s Layer3 were the first two pay TV operators to offer that content on their set-top boxes. Epix also said that all of its subscribers from all affiliates can now access 4K UHD content through the authenticated Epix Apple TV app. As for why Dish Network, Layer3 and Apple TV were the first platforms, Epix Chief Digital Officer Jon Dakss said Layer3 and Dish Network are at the forefront of providing 4K Ultra HD content to their customers, and that Apple TV is a great starting point for what Epix is doing with its authenticated app. “As you can probably imagine, it is incredibly complex to stream high-quality 4K Ultra HD given the plethora of devices, TV sets and even HDMI cables that have to be configured properly,” said Dakss. “We are now actively testing 4K Ultra HD with a variety of our app platform partners. But from our standpoint Apple TV was the best platform to launch with first.”