The NBC Olympics division of US media company NBCUniversal has agreed a content partnership with social media platform Snapchat for the 2016 Olympic Games and the US Olympic team trials.
The partnership represents the first time that NBC has agreed to share video content of the Olympic Games and will include daily Snapchat ‘Live Stories’ and an NBC Rio Olympic Discover channel.
Both the Live Story experiences and Discover channel will be available to Snapchatters in the US for over two weeks around this summer’s Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. NBC Olympics will co-produce the NBC Rio Olympic Discover channel with media company Buzzfeed, a regular contributor to both the Snapchat Discover platform and NBC’s content projects.
The Live Stories will allow thousands of Snapchatters attending select US Olympic team trial competitions and the Rio Games to contribute through photo and video snaps to one collective, Snapchat-curated story. These Live Stories, which will be available to all Snapchatters in the US to view, will include behind-the-scenes and fan moments from the scene of the events.
The Discover channel will be live throughout the duration of the Rio Olympics, launching on August 4, one day before the opening ceremony, and closing on August 22, the day after the closing ceremony.
NBC Olympics will lead the sales efforts across both Live Stories and Discover channel, working closely with the Snapchat sales team. NBC said it believes the Snapchat partnership will drive awareness of its Rio 2016 television and digital coverage.
The Bloomberg news agency said Snapchat isn’t paying for access, with the two partners set to share revenue from advertisements paired with the content.