Snapchat is introducing its new “Live” feature with NBC’s coverage of the Olympics in PyeongChang that will have a top moment each night livestreamed to users of the app in the United States.
Starting on Saturday, Snapchatters can go on the Discover page of NBC Olympics to view the live event coverage on their mobile devices during NBC’s live primetime broadcast. The new video player experience with Live enables users to zoom in on different live angles during each moment.
“We think Live will offer a great way to watch the moments that matter the most on mobile,” Ben Schwerin, Snap’s Vice President of Partnerships, said in a statement Wednesday. “NBC Olympics has been a tremendous partner, and we’re so excited to launch this product with them. We’re looking forward to building on our success from Rio 2016, bringing Snapchatters even more ways to experience the Olympics in PyeongChang.”
NBC Olympics will also debut two original shows on Snapchat Discover – Pipe Dreams and also Chasing Gold, which features top Team USA athletes including Lindsey Vonn, Chloe Kim, Gus Kenworthy and Nathan Chen.
Snap and NBC Olympics partnership includes custom Context Cards in “Our Stories,” with information from NBCOlympics.com curated by editors at Snapchat.
The ability for users to stream live Olympics programming enables NBC to use its own platform to do so with Snapchat, with NBCUniversal having invested $500 million in Snap.
The partnership between NBC and Snapchat has been fruitful, as 35 million tuned in with the app for Olympics content for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“Snapchat’s broad reach and young media savvy users will again present an excellent opportunity to engage this important segment of the American audience with great Olympic storytelling, custom built for this media hungry audience,” Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics, said in a statement.
Snap chief strategy officer Imran Khan said Tuesday on an earnings call that the company uses tentpole events like the Olympics as engagement drivers and financial drivers, with ad packages having “sold well.”