The social media service Snapchat and broadcaster NBC will be partnering for the Olympic Games this summer as Snapchat presents snippets of action through it’s ‘live stories’ function.
NBC, Olympic athletes, coaches and spectators will be able to submit their content to Snapchat from which a ’live story’ will be curated by media company BuzzFeed (in which NBC invested $200 million in last year) and be available in the Discover feature of Snapchat.
This is the first time that NBC have allowed the distribution of any game highlights outside of their own platforms according to Gary Henkel, President of NBC Olympics. The reasoning behind the partnership is to reach a demographic within the United States which will engage with the Olympic Games in new ways.
Although the footage created will only be available in the USA, where NBC paid $1.23 billion to acquire the rights to show the Olympic Games, the content created by BuzzFeed will not be exclusive to Snapchat as BuzzFeed seek to engage other partners around the world to show it.
Reaching new demographics is becoming a focus for many rights holders and broadcasters and this is certainly an innovative method of doing so.
