Twitch continues to close the barrier between gaming culture and the mainstream through a partnership with the Olympic Games and the creation of a channel that will host exclusive content tailored to a younger audience.
The NBC Olympics Twitch channel will primarily focus on content surrounding the event rather than livestreaming the event itself. The channel’s coverage will contain daily highlight shows, athlete interviews and many Olympics themed games.
The programming will include interactive shows such as “Keep the Torch Alive.” This segment operates with a bounty system, where viewers can collect items all throughout the week leading to the games. There will also be a pre-opening ceremony party hosted by popular streamers.
“The way that people consume traditional sporting events is changing,” said Michael Aragorn, chief content officer at Twitch in a statement to Sportico. “They no longer want to simply spectate; they want to be as close to the action and athletes as possible.”
The Twitch channel will run alongside the primary NBC broadcast that showcases all the Olympic games. NBC said the channel’s goal is to steer younger consumers toward its television broadcast through this more interactive platform.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Twitch on innovative ways to tell the stories of Team USA’s athletes in Tokyo and build Olympic excitement with their audience,” Said Gary Zenkel, President of NBC Sports’ Olympics division.
This is not the first time Twitch has intersected with the traditional sports world, as the streaming platform has frequently hosted events that include traditional sports athletes. Twitch has even bought the rights to stream NFL games and the shows that come along with it.
This collaboration between NBC and Twitch, however, marks a new attempt to capitalize off the platform’s audience by creating a secondary broadcast home for a traditionally televised event.
