NBC banks on social media to enhance reach of #Rio Olympics

In a historic paradigm shift that reflects the power of social media, NBC and Facebook have decided to work together to bring the Rio Olympics to the internet.

Facebook and Instagram will now broadcast around 20 highlights per day from the Rio Olympics, to be held next month and also a two minute recap. Also, interviews and discussions with athletes will be broadcasted using Facebook Live.

Snapchat and NBC had also inked a deal in April this year to stream Rio Olympics' highlights through Snapchat’s Discover page.

There hasn’t been an official agreement between Twitter and NBC yet, but they plan on posting event footage on the microblogging platform through tweets.

NBC still exercises complete control over broadcast of live events for the Olympics, but this is the first time they are working with non-NBC platforms. The deal is only applicable to Facebook and Instagram users in the United States.

This unprecedented move implies NBC attempting to tap into the young audiences who have become disenchanted with television sets and enamored by social media.

A ‘Social Media Opening Ceremony’ was held at the Santa Monica beach hosted by Ryan Seacrest and posted through NBC’s social media handles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

The Rio Olympics shall commence on August 5, 2016 and is expected to be one of the most colossal sporting events in recent years and with NBC utilizing the social media inventory at their disposal, #Rio is expected to trend across the social media spectrum.