NBCU Unveils Digital, Social Media Initiatives for Olympics Coverage

LONDON: NBCUniversal is planning to offer what it is calling an "unprecedented" level of digital and social-media coverage of the London Olympic Games, including live streaming more than 3,500 total hours, rolling out two new apps and partnering with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among others.

For the first time ever, NBCOlympics.com will live stream every athletic event and sport. NBCOlympics.com will also live stream the Olympic content that airs on NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo. The site will not, however, live stream the opening ceremony, which will be broadcast on a delay in prime time in the U.S.

NBCUniversal has launched two new apps: NBC Olympics Live Extra app will live stream every athletic competition, each Olympic cable channel—NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo—and provide multiple concurrent streams for select sports. Most of the live stream content will only be available to authenticated cable, satellite or telco customers.The NBC Olympics app will deliver short-form highlights, event schedules, TV and online listings, results, athlete profiles, columns and the new Primetime Companion second-screen feature.

Meanwhile, partnerships have been signed with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. YouTube will provide the video-player technology, hosting and infrastructure for the live stream Olympic content online. The NBC Olympics page on Facebook will feature news and information, plus polls, photo galleries, trivia and shareable images. In addition, representatives from Facebook will work with NBC editorial teams to produce social-media segments that will air throughout the Games. With Twitter, NBC Olympics is launching an event page for the games. Featuring news and information, the page will also aggregate tweets about the games from athletes, coaches, teams, families, media, fans, and Olympic insiders. Social media partnerships have also been inked with Shazam, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr and GetGlue.