Exclusive: Nitro Circus to stream post show on Facebook following record-attempting event on NBC
With a strategy to expand its portfolio beyond core sports, NBC Sports recently formed a multi-year partnership with Nitro Circus.
Coverage begins this Sunday with a 90-minute show on NBC when BMXers Jed Milton and James Foster will compete to successfully land the world’s first-ever quadruple backflip.
Following the show on NBC, Nitro Circus will be hosting a live post show exclusively on Facebook. During the live stream Milton and Foster will answer fan questions and discuss their attempt at history.
“Facebook is this amazing content delivery system, and our core News Feed product is designed to deliver the right content to the right person at the right time,” Patrick Chapman, Strategic Partnership Development – Sports, tells Found Remote. “So the opportunities for content creators like Nitro Circus and NBC to engage existing fans and find new audiences have never been greater.”
In the lead up to the event, Nitro Circus is using Facebook for traditional tune-in marketing, but is also leveraging native video to give fans exclusive, behind-the-scenes access. And, during the event, Nitro Circus will be promoting a “Watch With” event featuring BMXer Travis Pastrana - who boasts six million followers on Facebook.
“To optimize for shifting consumption habits, producers are increasingly weaving Facebook into the fabric of their overall programming strategy,” Chapman says. “Nitro Circus has put together an exciting example of how to stitch together a variety of social media assets to supplement TV programs in ways that drive awareness, tune-in, and engagement.”
Facebook has done a tremendous job in the past two years capturing the conversation around live events, and the company will surely continue to experiment with post-event live streams – especially as they go all in on video. The question is whether Facebook will soon be competing to live stream the events themselves.