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Here’s an example of the kind of alliance NBCUniversal apparently had in mind early this month when it made a $500 million investment in Snap — owner of Snapchat — in its initial public offering: The companies say today that they will partner to offer content in February from the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Snapchat will cover the games on Snapchat Discovery with daily “Our Stories” and “Publisher Stories.” The latter will be co-produced by BuzzFeed, in which NBCU has invested at least $400 million.
The programming will include ad sales packages, as well as opportunities for sponsors to buy national Geofilters and Lenses in the U.S. The programming will be available during the Winter Games, and on “select key dates” before then, the companies say.
NBC’s Olympic coverage will begin on February 8, a day ahead of the Opening Ceremony.
The companies offered similar programming at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Nearly 35 million Snapchatters — the vast majority under 35 — accounted for more than 230 million minutes of consumed content, NBCU says.
“Our Stories” will provide U.S. Snapchat users with content submitted by other users — but “curated” by the company — it says. NBC Olympics will provide clips, brand marks, logos, and other material.
The “Publisher Stories” will come from BuzzFeed’s team in PyeongChang. NBCU will provide access to athletes, as well as clips and shots from inside and outside PyeongChang Olympic venues.
“Snapchat is an incredibly dynamic platform, offering unique coverage opportunities that allowed us to extend the broad reach of the Olympics during the Rio Games, especially engaging young fans,” NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel says. “With Snapchat’s continually evolving platform, and with the expertise our partners at BuzzFeed have of creating relatable, sharable content, we are looking forward to bringing the depth and quality of this coverage to the next level for our audience and advertisers at the 2018 Winter Olympics.”
Snap VP Partnerships Ben Schwerin says that advertisers will be able to buy “adjacency to premium video content and creative tools that bring them into our community’s conversations.”
Both the Our Stories and Publisher Stories will be available on Snapchat throughout the Winter Games, as well as during select key dates leading up to February.
