NBC's partnership with BuzzFeed at the Rio Games is "one of the most visible signs thus far of the collaboration between the two companies" since Comcast Corp.-owned NBCUniversal invested $200M in BuzzFeed last year, according to Steven Perlberg of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. BuzzFeed has been putting content on NBC's official Olympics channel on Snapchat Discover, and BuzzFeed Exec Producer Andrew Gauthier said, "I’ve been a little surprised with how much room they’ve given us to experiment, to try new things, to do things that are in execution pretty different from their coverage during the day and in primetime." Perlberg noted about a dozen BuzzFeed staffers "are on location in Rio, dedicated to creating a daily edition on Snapchat Discover." NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel said of the content, "There are certainly boundaries which we would not want them to cross, but good humor and using perhaps some language that has become part of the lexicon of the generation, we’re not going to restrict that" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/13). The FINANCIAL TIMES' Hannah Kuchler notes almost 50 million people "have watched the Olympic Games on Snapchat so far." Nearly one-third of daily Snapchat users have "viewed the clips in Live Stories, showing that the app could challenge other social sites such as Facebook and Twitter for dominance in live events." Snapchat "partnered with broadcasters in seven countries including" the U.S., U.K. and Brazil. NBC Olympics and Snapchat are "sharing advertising revenue from the ads placed in the Discover page." Seven brand partners "have signed up to advertise," including Walmart and Dick's Sporting Goods (FINANCIAL TIMES, 8/15).
