NBC teams up with Facebook, Instagram ahead of Rio 2016

The NBC Olympics division of US media company NBCUniversal has partnered with social media platforms Facebook and Instagram ahead of the start of the 2016 summer Games in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

Under the agreement, NBC Olympics and Facebook will launch an on-site ‘Social Command Center’ in Rio that will utilise the platform’s Facebook Live feature to capture content such as interviews with commentators and athletes.

NBC Olympics will share short-form highlights and interviews on Facebook and Instagram on a daily basis. The content will incorporate tune-in information and promote NBC Olympics’ television coverage.

NBC Olympics will also post a two-minute daily recap video on Facebook, which will be available to users in the US. Slow-motion videos will be posted on Instagram each day, while Instagram’s own handle – @instagram – will feature NBC Olympics commentators and US athletes.

NBC Olympics also partnered with Facebook at Sochi 2014 and London 2012. Rio 2016 will be the first time it has partnered with Facebook-owned Instagram.

Olympic-related content posted to Facebook and Instagram by athletes, celebrities and news makers will be incorporated across NBC Olympics’ linear coverage of the Games, including on NBC in primetime and late night, and on Spanish-language network Telemundo.

NBC Olympics earlier this year agreed a content partnership with social media platform Snapchat, under which video content will be shared via the ‘Live Stories’ feature.