NBC and Facebook in Olympic push

NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, and Facebook Inc. will collaborate to promote coverage of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

The agreement will focus on driving conversation about the NBC coverage on Facebook, and will include the premiering of video content on the social network.

Other online features will include a Q&A with Olympic figure skating gold medalist Sarah Hughes as well as polls, galleries, trivia and news.

In turn, NBC editorial staff will work with Facebook representatives to incorporate social media segments into their coverage.

The collaboration comes after the success of the relationship the two companies had in covering the 2012 London Olympics.

Gary Zenkel, president, NBC Olympics said: “Building off of our successful collaboration for the London Olympics, we have expanded our relationship to better serve Olympic fans’ insatiable appetite for Games’ content.

“All with an eye on driving viewership to our multi-platform coverage, we will use our unique access to all aspects of the Sochi Games to ignite the Olympic conversation and engagement on Facebook.”

Justin Osofsky, partnerships and operations at Facebook, added: “The Olympics is the world’s premiere sporting event. People will use Facebook and Instagram to connect and share with their friends and the global community in real-time.

“Our partnership will help NBC Olympics to use the Facebook and Instagram platforms to connect directly with their viewers to enhance the viewing and digital experiences.”