HDTV Coverage
Fox's first widescreen broadcast occurred during Super Bowl XXXVI, which was shown in a 480p standard definition 16:9 format promoted as "Fox Widescreen". While promoted as having better quality than standard definition, and being the country's first sporting event completely produced in widescreen on all cameras, it was not true high definition, but it still matched the aspect ratio of high definition televisions.
Fox Sports began airing programs in 720p HDTV starting on July 3, 2004 with the Pepsi 400, select NFL games, the 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and that year's postseason. Following its debut, Fox would produce more telecasts in HD in the years following, but still fell back on 480p widescreen when needed. Nearly all of Fox's sports programming now airs in HD.
As of late July 2010, all sports programming on Fox is broadcast in a format optimized for 16:9 widescreen displays, with graphics now framed within a widescreen safe area rather than the 4:3 safe area, intended to be shown in a letterboxed format for standard definition viewers.
Read more about this topic: Fox Sports (United States)