USA Swimming Productions Launches With Support of Playmaker Media

NBC Sports Group and USA Swimming will broaden their partnership with the announcement that NBC Sports’ Playmaker Media will power the launch of USA Swimming Productions.

Playmaker Media, owned by NBC Sports Group and operated by NBC Sports Digital, delivers direct-to-consumer, live streaming and video-on-demand solutions for major sports leagues, professional team franchises, regional and national sports broadcasting networks and other premium rights holders of live-event content. USA Swimming is the first U.S. National Governing Body to employ Playmaker, which also provides video support for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) global digital Olympic Channel.

“When we looked how to best expand our distribution of content to TV, web, mobile, connected TVs and other digital areas, Playmaker Media clearly rose to the top as the most useful platform to reach our audiences,” said Matt Farrell, USA Swimming Chief Marketing Officer. “More and more, people are turning to digital first, and this partnership will make it so much easier to find events, educational content and to be introduced to our next generation of swimming stars leading into Tokyo 2020.”

USA Swimming Productions is the cornerstone of USA Swimming’s long-term strategy to expand video delivery across all digital channels. It has been created to produce video, social, informational and educational content that will be distributed on different USA Swimming platforms to grow its membership and base of fans and also to promote the sport more widely. Designed to make the sport of swimming more accessible through additional video offerings, including live event coverage, USA Swimming will also leverage its new Productions unit to provide shoulder programming at major events, athlete profiles, and training and nutrition information for swimmers of all ages and backgrounds through its Playmaker alliance.

“Using the Playmaker technology will greatly enhance the quality of our webcasts to provide our viewers an interactive and high-quality presentation. We can’t wait to kick this off next week with the Phillips 66 National Championships,” said Nailah Ellis Timberlake, USA Swimming Productions Manager. “As we set out to execute our content production strategy of delivering educational and entertaining content to our swimming community, this partnership will allow us to reach our audiences wherever and whenever they have time to view it.”

“The NBC Sports and USA Swimming alliance continues to grow, and this Playmaker Media partnership is the latest example,” said Eric Black, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, NBC Sports Digital. “Our digital team has always enjoyed a terrific relationship with USA Swimming, including our collaborative work during last summer’s USA Swimming Olympic Trials that attracted almost a half-million live streaming users. It’s successes like that which directly led to this USA Swimming Productions powered by Playmaker Media agreement.”

NBC Sports Group and USA Swimming recently announced a media rights agreement that provides NBC Sports Group with exclusive television and digital streaming rights to five premier USA Swimming events through 2024.

USA Swimming Productions powered by Playmaker Media will debut on https://www.usaswimming.org/ on June 27 in advance of its 2017 Phillips 66 National Championships and World Championships Trials June 27-July 1 from Indianapolis.

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