Olympic Channel Connects With Snapchat

The Olympic Channel said it has forged a multi-year deal with Snapchat that will, for the first time, extend a content bridge to the popular social media platform. 

The deal, which taps into Snapchat’s 178 million daily active users, provides Snap with Olympic Channel original programming for Shows on Snapchat’s Discover page and assets for creative tools, such as Olympic-themed lenses, filters and stickers.

Snapchat will also produce Our Stories, a series that features archival footage provided by the Olympic Channel in collaboration with Olympic rights-holding broadcasters, during the 2018 Olympic Winter Games from PyeongChang.  

Starting Tuesday (January 30), Snapchat users will have access to the global premiere of Far From Home, a new Olympic Channel original, via Snapchat’s Discover page. The multi-part series features unlikely Olympic hopefuls who face financial, political and cultural hurdles as they attempt to qualify for PyeongChang 2018, Olympic Channel noted.

Following the daily rollout of four episodes produced exclusively for Snapchat in both English and Spanish, the full Far From Home series will debut on the Olympic Channel global digital platform on February 5.

Olympic Channel and Snap will also work together on other projects, including the Buenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games.  

“As the Olympic Channel continues to evolve, we are dedicated to creating more personalised experiences for our viewers as we continue to expand our global footprint,” Mark Parkman, GM of the IOC’s global Olympic Channel, said in a statement. We’re excited to begin this new collaboration with Snapchat which will allow us to capitalise on its unique distribution platform and creative tools through bespoke, youth-oriented content that reaches our common target audiences.”