How can movies from 70s be remastered in 4K, but not sports games?

Question

For example, they remastered Taxi Driver from 1976 to 4K Quality, but they can’t remaster Lakers vs Celtics from the 80s?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Because movies were shot on film, which has a relatively high resolution (35mm motion picture film—the most common format for professional filmmaking—has an effective resolution of ~4K), whereas televised sports had a relatively low resolution (broadcast in *standard definition* (640 x 480 pixels)) during that time period.

Of course, televised material shot in a different format (e.g., on film) may be in a higher resolution. In those cases, it may depend on rights issues, the will to invest in the remastering, etc.