The Olympics Are Coming To Twitch, But We Have More Questions Than Answers
Gamers already know that esports will appear at the 2020 Olympics, but now one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world has gotten involved in the prestigious games.
A press release from NBC, the network responsible for broadcasting the Olympics in America, announced that NBC and Twitch will partner together to provide interactive Olympics content to viewers online. Gary Zenkle, the president of the NBC Olympics team, explained the situation as the next natural step for the Olympics. "The Olympic Games are perfectly aligned with Twitch consumers, who are passionate about great competition, personality and storytelling. We can't wait to bring the unmatched moments and stories of the Olympics to Twitch's interactive community," Zenkel said.
Twitch's chief content officer, Michael Aragon further elaborated on the partnership. "The way that people consume traditional sporting events is changing. They no longer want to simply spectate; they want to be as close to the action and athletes as possible," Aragon said. Twitch will apparently help viewers achieve that closeness by featuring special clips and behind the scenes style footage, but the press release does not go into explicit detail about what sort of additional programming Twitch will provide to the Olympics.
Much of the planned content seems to be geared around streamers. Twitch content creators will compete with each other and earn medals for their efforts, and Twitch will provide a daily clip show that showcases the best moments from the day, along with interviews and extra footage that doesn't air on television. Even with those details, it's not entirely clear what this show will be, or what these competitions will entail.
One motivation behind the Olympics and Twitch partnership is interactivity. Television simply cannot provide the amount of interactivity Twitch does. With its chat rooms and ability to connect creators and viewers, Twitch allows viewers to feel like they're participating in the games without actually being there.
Streaming fans have fired back at Twitch in recent months, letting the streaming giant know about their displeasure with a rash of recent bans and policy changes. Some bans had no discernible reason behind them, and were shrugged off by Twitch, while other bans took advantage of an of-overlooked age rule found in Twitch's user agreement. A partnership with the Olympics could work as a sort of rehabilitation for Twitch's reputation in the gaming community.
Fans can check out the Olympics' channel now on Twitch, and enjoy new content beginning one week before the opening ceremony.