Snapchat lands major deal to show highlights of Rio Olympics

Snapchat has scored a deal to host video highlights of the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics.

It's a major coup for Snapchat as well as BuzzFeed, which will be curating the highlights into a channel for the app's Discover platform. There will also be Live Stories that incorporate Olympics highlights as well as behind-the-scenes video and user-provided content.

BuzzFeed counts NBCUniversal, which owns the exclusive U.S. distribution rights to the upcoming Olympic games, among its investors.

Bloomberg first reported the deal.

The deal is huge for Snapchat and its efforts to become a major player in the media world. NBC has never before struck a deal for Olympics footage to appear on another company's platform.

"We are thrilled to be working closely with Snapchat on extending the stories and excitement of the Rio Olympics to their large, dynamic, and socially active audience,” said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics, in a press release. “And who better to partner with to produce content for that audience than Buzzfeed, perhaps the most creative producers in the social content space."

The companies involved will split any revenue made from advertising against the Olympic highlights. The content will only be available to U.S. Snapchat users.

Right now, Snapchat is the only platform to have the deal, but the content could still appear elsewhere. 

NBC is handling the advertising sales for the deal.

TiVo’s new Roamio OTA DVR for cord cutters has no monthly fees, more storage

While DVR maker TiVo has been focused on the future with the recent unveiling of its 4K-ready DVR designed for the streaming era, the company is continuing to improve its other popular device for cord cutters as well, the TiVo Roamio. This morning, TiVo announced an updated version of this product, the TiVo Roamio OTA 1TB. As the name implies, one of the biggest advantages to this new version is increased storage.

With a 1 TB hard drive, users can record up to 150 hours of high-definition programming, and up to four shows at once thanks to multiple tuners. It can pull in programs over-the-air (hence the “OTA” in its name) via an HD antenna, which means you can record from networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS and Univision, for example.

In addition, the device will allow you to watch across a number of major streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and YouTube. Plus, you can “cast” Netflix and YouTube directly from your mobile phone to the streaming device, if you choose. That means you don’t need to buy a separate dongle to take advantage of this functionality, TiVo notes.

The updated player includes TiVo’s latest software features, QuickMode and SkipMode, too. Introduced with the TiVo Bolt, the former lets you play back recordings 30 percent faster with pitch-corrected audio. This is useful for when you’re watching a video more for informational or educational purposes – like news or sports, for example. SkipMode, meanwhile, lets you bypass commercial breaks with a press of a button.

Also available in the new Roamio are standard TiVo features like its universal search feature OneSearch, plus OnePass, which combines over-the-air broadcasts and streaming services to create universal watchlists when you subscribe to shows.

The device, like others, works with TiVo Minis if you want to watch on different TVs throughout your house, and it’s compatible with TiVo Stream, allowing you to download live and recorded shows for viewing on your iOS or Android device even when you’re out of the home.

But perhaps the most appealing feature of all, save for the upgraded storage, is how the device is being priced. Instead of requiring a monthly subscription fee, the Roamio OTA 1 GB is designed to appeal to most cost-sensitive cord cutters. Because this crowd is already beset with monthly fees to a variety of over-the-top services like Hulu and Netflix, it can sometimes be hard to ask them to make yet another ongoing commitment.

So instead, TiVo is selling the Roamio OTA 1 GB for the “all-in,” one time price of $399.99, which will include the TiVo service. While that’s not cheap by any means, people who buy TiVos tend to see it as an investment in a device they’ll use for several years to come. They often justify the price as being better than paying a monthly “rental” fee to a traditional cable TV provider for that company’s DVRs (which tend to run terrible software in comparison.)

The new TiVo Roamio OTA 1 GB will be available as of May 2nd, at Tivo.com, BestBuy.com and Amazon, as well as in Best Buy stores.