NBC Olympics and Facebook today announced a partnership that will promote the Olympics on TV via Facebook while at the same time send Olympic TV viewers to Facebook to discuss the Games. NBC Olympics has set up its own page on the social networking site which will carry exclusive content including highlights. Facebook and NBC will produce social media segments that will be carried on NBC's various TV and digital platforms. Facebook also has committed to launch "Talk Meter," which occasionally will alert TV viewers to the stories and results that many fans are discussing on the social media site (John Ourand, THE DAILY). Facebook and NBC Olympics execs said that the arrangement “was not an advertising deal, and they indicated that no money was changing hands.” In N.Y., Brian Stelter reports the companies in effect will be “marketing each other’s products, possibly encouraging even more simultaneous viewing and chatting.” Fans will be able to “let Facebook friends know that they are watching videos and reading articles on the network’s Olympics Web site, possibly encouraging more viewing and reading by their friends.” Stelter writes perhaps the “more intriguing part of the partnership, for traditional television viewers, involves Facebook’s data-crunching about user conversations related to the Olympics.” Facebook Strategic Media Partnerships Manager Andy Mitchell said, “NBC is going to turn that data into stories.” The prime-time broadcast on NBC “will also promote a daily poll on Facebook about the Olympics.” NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel said the Facebook integration would come on “when the information warrants it and when it is compelling.” Stelter notes NBC “has not announced a deal with Twitter around its Olympics telecasts, but it is likely to do so before the Games start” (N.Y. TIMES, 7/11).
