NBC and Facebook announced a deal Thursday to share content on the upcoming Winter Olympics, both hoping to boost interest on what promises to be a big event for social media.
One of NBC's short Olympic profiles, on the relationship between American speed skater J.R. Celski and Seattle rapper Macklemore, premiered Thursday on Facebook's site.
The Olympics begin Feb. 6 in Sochi, Russia, and NBC is the American rights holder to broadcast the games. The network believes, through its experience with the London Summer Olympics in 2012, that social media helps drive more viewers to their telecasts. Facebook wants to establish itself as the place to have those conversations.
The NBC Olympics page on Facebook will feature video like the Celski story and other content. American figure skating gold medalist Sarah Hughes will be available to answer questions from fans online during NBC's prime-time coverage of the figure skating competition. NBC will also offer polls, photo galleries, trivia and other shareable information on its Facebook page.
NBC is in talks with other social media companies about Olympics material, although the deal with Facebook and its related site Instagram was the first one announced.
NBC and Facebook also collaborated with the London games, but this year the network will share more information to serve an "insatiable appetite" for Olympics content, said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics.
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More