STAMFORD, Conn.—NBC Olympics is ramping up its planned programming for the Tokyo games, announcing a new partnership with livestreaming service Twitch to produce and deliver live content that will be available through a unique NBC Olympics Twitch channel leading up to and during the Olympics.

The planned programing will include highlight studio shows, pre-Olympics activations, athlete interviews and Olympic-themed gaming competitions, all geared toward the Twitch community.

Olympic coverage on Twitch will start a week before the games begin with an interactive program to keep the Olympic torch “alive” by collecting items and participating in chats so as to ultimately light the cauldron on the day of the Opening Ceremony.

Also pre-Opening Ceremony, the NBC Olympics Twitch channel will feature Olympic-themed segments from top creators, all taking place in a virtual setting.

During the games, the NBC Olympics Channel will feature a daily interactive clip show showing the best highlights of the day with polls, live AMAs and games included. There will also be a daily competition where teams of Twitch creators try to accrue medals throughout the Olympics’ two weeks. Also, Twitch will offer live commentary as a companion to NBC’s primetime broadcast and a Live from Tokyo segment will provide athlete interviews and Q&As.

“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,” said Michael Aragon, chief content officer at Twitch. “The Olympics present an opportunity for a global fan base to embrace this new world of live and interactive sports. We are thrilled to partner with NBC to give fans in the United States an intimate, front row seat to this iconic sporting event and connect American athletes and fans in a way that can only happen on Twitch.”

The 2021 Toyko Olympics will take place from July 23-Aug. 8.

LONDON—People aren’t just streaming TV shows and movies, live streams of video games grew substantially in 2020, and after the first quarter, 2021 is off to an even better start, as a total of 8.8 billion hours were watched across the three major game streaming platforms.

Compiling data from Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming, 123scommesse.it reported that 2020 hit 27.9 billion hours watched for live video game streaming, 78% more than before the pandemic. As COVID-19 still lingers, the 8.8 billion hours watched in Q1 2021 represents an 80% jump year-over-year from Q1 2020.

Twitch was the far-and-away leader of live video game streams in 2020, with a total of 18.4 billion hours watched throughout the year, including 5.4 billion hours watching in Q4 2020. Twitch has already hit a third of its total 2020 hours in the first three months of 2021, with a reported 6.3 billion hours watched. That is nearly double what it did in Q1 2020 (3.2 billion)

While sharing a smaller portion of the market, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming also saw growths in Q1 2021. YouTube Gaming had 1.4 billion hours of watched streams, up from 1.1 billion year-over-year. Facebook Gaming had 1.1 billion hours, an 83% year-over-year increase from its Q1 2020 numbers of 600 million.

CHICAGO—The National Women’s Soccer League has signed a three-year media rights deal that will see its matches appear both on traditional TV and streaming platforms through CBS Sports and Twitch.

This deal was slated to start with the 2020 NWSL season on April 18, but as the world deals with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the league is currently reviewing contingency plans for its regular season schedule. Other sports leagues and television productions have been suspended or limited as a result of the coronavirus.

As for the deal itself, CBS Sports is set to deliver a total of 87 NWSL matches across CBS, CBS Sports Network and CBS All Access in 2020, including the championship game on the CBS Television Network; 71 games were expected to be on CBS All Access, which would also be available to subscribers online, on mobile devices and connected TV devices.

NWSL says that the deal with CBS marks the first time a U.S. broadcast network will present live, national coverage of women’s professional club soccer.

Twitch, meanwhile, is expected to present 24 free, select matches during the 2020 NWSL regular season in the U.S. Twitch will also be the exclusive international media rights partner for NWSL outside of the U.S., making all games available on its platform to global viewers.

NWSL and Twitch are also planning to collaborate on additional content and original programming.

LONDON—If watching eSports was an Olympic event, China would be racking up gold medals. A new report from Ampere Analysis found that among China’s internet users, 26% are watching eSports at least once a month, which is significantly more than Western countries.

The leader in eSports viewing among Western countries is Denmark, which has 9% of its internet viewers watching eSports on a monthly basis. Sweden, the U.K. and France follow, with the U.S. just behind them at about 6%.

The big draw for eSports audiences, according to Ampere, has been high profile global tournaments. The 2019 Fortnite World Cup drew 20 million global viewers on Twitch; the FIFA 2019 eWorld Cup garnered 50 million global viewers across all platforms. China’s highest-watched eSports event was the League of Legends 2018 World Championship, which had an audience of 203 million in the country, compared to 2 million throughout the rest of the world.

The audience for eSports appears to growing among demographics, as Ampere’s study indicates. While the main demographic fo eSports is still males 18-34, females now make up 35% of viewers, while 40% are over 35 and 33% live with young children. China in particular is pretty well balanced, as 43% of its viewers are female.

As far as how viewers are watching eSports, Amazon’s Twitch platform is the most popular service among North American and European viewers, at about 65% usage among monthly viewers. YouTube trails with under 40%. Twitch has been able to build its popularity by hosting a variety of channels and having deals for third-party streaming rights for events.

“The rise of eSports viewing on a global scale presents a potentially lucrative opportunity for new and existing players,” said Hazel Ford, analyst at Ampere. “Platforms such as Twitch and YouTube are currently market leaders but face growing competition from a number of newcomers, including the developers themselves. As with the traditional sports world, exclusive rights deals will become crucial for platforms looking to control high growth eSports audiences.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.

DALLAS--A growing number of U.S. broadband households is spending more time watching user generated live content on social media, according to a new industry report from Parks Associates. The growth in this sector parallels a declining number of viewers getting their news from local new sources.

In the research firm’s report, “The Future of Live Entertainment,” 47 percent of U.S. broadband households watch user-generated content more than once per month. By the end of 2017, 12 percent of U.S. broadband households were regularly watching either a live TV show or live events via a live streaming site or app such as Twitter, Facebook, or Twitch. ABC launched a 24/7 live streaming network in April 2018 to capitalize on this trend.

The report also found that just 37 percent of U.S. adults are getting their news from local news sources, including newspapers, TV and radio, down from 46 percent in 2016.

[Read: ‘Consistent Experience’ Is Key To Combining OTT, Linear TV']

"Total average video consumption on a television has dropped 13 percent, from more than 20 hours per week in 2012 to less than 17 hours per week in 2017," said Billy Nayden, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "In contrast, user-generated live content is gaining popularity, with platforms such as Instagram Live providing new ways for content creators to engage with their viewers in real time. As more alternatives to traditional TV emerge, all players will explore new and unique ways to package and present digital streaming as part of their services.

"For content whose value is its live broadcast, such as sports and breaking news, there are online alternatives emerging," Nayden added. "Much of news consumption has moved to social media, while sports TV has shifted to digital in recent years, with many OTT options going direct to consumers, including MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, and ESPN+."

The report also found that Millennials (18-34 years of age), watch 30 percent of their live content on a TV from online video services and that 78 percent of that age group report getting their news from social media. Approximately 35 percent of TV antenna owners connect their antenna to a streaming media player.

NEW YORK—Cloud-based technology provider Amagi was the method of choice for Cinedigm to deliver its CONtv channel to the Twitch social video service, specifically using Amagi’s CloudPort cloud-based channel playout platform.

CONtv is a digital network billed as a devoted fan space, providing original programming and a digital catalog of film and TV titles. By using the CloudPort platform, CONtv is available as a 24/7 linear offering on Twitch.

With CloudPort, CONtv can stitch together a linear OTT channel in a few weeks, without having to use a separate custom-designed solution for periodic live events. CloudPort enabled Cinedigm to control the entire broadcast workflow—including playing live and library graphics, playlist scheduling or customized ad insertion—through a web user interface.

Amagi, which was founded in 2008, made its official U.S. debut in 2017.