NBC Launches Olympics Live-Streaming App

With less than three weeks before the July 27 Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, NBC on Thursday launched multiple Games apps, including NBC Olympics Live Extra, which allows cable, satellite and telco subscribers to live stream more than 3,500 hours of content, including 32 sports and all 302 medial events.

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There’s also the NBC Olympics app for shortform highlights, TV and online schedules, live results, columns and social networking. The app includes a second screen Primetime Companion feature that syncs to the NBC primetime broadcast, so if Michael Phelps is swimming the 100 M butterfly, the app may offer a bio, slide show, video highlights or other fun facts. Think Pop Up Video: Olympic Edition.

“NBC Olympics Live Extra puts the London Olympic Games into the hands of America’s tablet and smartphone user, enabling us to once again use advances in technology to provide the broadest possible access to the thousands of hours of Olympic competition,” Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics, said in a statement.

The London 2012 Games are arguably the first summer Olympics since social media hit critical mass. And while NBC will live stream all events, the vast majority of that content will only be available to cable, satellite and telco subscribers via an authentication model.