NBC and ESPN have come to an agreement on highlight rights for the network’s website. In exchange, ESPN.com will link to NBCOlympic.com’s live streams. The agreement began on Saturday and among the Olympic events visitors to ESPN.com were encouraged to link to were women’s rugby and the US women’s soccer game against France.
This is an extension of the digital agreements NBC has signed with various sites like BuzzFeed, Facebook/Instagram, Google, SB Nation and Yahoo. Each have rights to show 20 Olympic highlights per day. For ESPN.com, it can run 10 45-second highlights per day and they can stream immediately following each event.
However, the deal with ESPN.com does not extend to TV as ESPN’s networks still fall under restrictions of not airing Olympic highlights until after NBC’s coverage is complete for the day.
On the day of the Opening Ceremony, NBC signed an agreement with Yahoo for digital highlights. It was actually an extension of an existing partnership that has run four years. Like with ESPN.com, Yahoo Sports can stream highlights and also link back to NBCOlympics.com live streams.
NBC continues to sign partnership for the Olympics in hopes of extending its brand across social media platforms and to get links to its live streams. By making these agreements, NBC is attracting all types of traffic to its site and some sampling of its live streams. And as live events are taking place all over Rio, NBC says it has resulted in consumption for soccer and the Opening Ceremony.
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About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.