Snapchat strikes a non-exclusive deal with NBC to show Olympics highlights in US via live stories and Discover channel curated by BuzzFeed
Snapchat Scores Unprecedented Deal With NBC to Showcase Olympics — Companies to share revenue from ads paired with content See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This deal is the payoff of a year-long build-out of Snapchat's sports strategy: after testing the format with an NCAA Final Four Live Story in 2015, Snapchat signed a Nielsen measurement deal so its video ad reach could be sold like TV inventory, then locked in a multi-year NFL partnership. The Olympics agreement extends that playbook to the biggest US television event of 2016 — with BuzzFeed curating the Discover channel and NBC sharing ad revenue rather than licensing clips outright.
The non-exclusive structure matters as much as the name brand: NBC keeps the right to distribute highlights elsewhere, making this a distribution bet by a network that had been treating social platforms as a threat. Within months NBC doubled down with a multi-year slate of original NBCU shows for Snapchat, and the partnership deepened again when Snapchat built a tool letting networks pipe live broadcast snippets directly into the app for the 2018 Games.
First-order effects
- NBC gains a mobile-first showcase for Olympics highlights aimed at viewers who don't watch linear prime-time coverage, while Snapchat gets premium content for Live Stories and Discover without paying a rights fee — both sides monetize through a shared ad-revenue split.
- BuzzFeed takes on curation of the Discover channel, inserting itself as the editorial layer between NBC's footage and Snapchat's audience.
Second-order effects
- Other rights holders face a template they can copy cheaply: the NFL's existing Discover slot and Live Stories show leagues can trade highlight access for ad revenue and audience reach instead of holding out for exclusivity.
- Snapchat's Nielsen-backed measurement infrastructure becomes the enabler — once Olympic highlights are measured like TV ads, agencies can shift Olympic-season budgets between NBC's broadcasts and Snapchat's feed within the same buy.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, major sports rights stop being walled gardens: networks syndicate highlights across social platforms under revenue-share terms, and platforms like Snapchat compete for TV ad dollars on measurement and curation rather than on owning content.
- The non-exclusive model also points toward networks hedging their own distribution — NBC treating Snapchat as one outlet among many reduces any single platform's leverage over future rights negotiations.
The trend: Television networks are shifting from guarding sports rights to syndicating highlights into social platforms under shared ad-revenue deals, turning competitors into distribution partners.