FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 27th, 2017

BYTES: U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS SCORE ON NBC OLYMPICS SOCIAL

NBC SPORTS DIGITAL “BYTES”

January 27, 2017 – Vol. 99

NBC Sports Digital “Bytes” is a collection of highlights, information and metrics for NBC Sports Digital properties. Previous editions can be found on NBCSportsGroupPressbox.com.

U.S. Figure Skating Championships Score on NBC Olympics Social

NBC Olympics’ social media accounts surrounded the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships with video highlights, Facebook Lives, and a Live Story on Snapchat story the day of the event. Videos of 2017 U.S. Figure Skating men’s champion Nathan Chen, who landed a record seven quad jumps between his two performances, ladies’ champion Karen Chen, ladies’ silver medalist Ashley Wagner, and ice dance champions Maia and Alex Shibutani racked up nearly seven million views on NBC Olympics Facebook. Click here to view the videos.

NBC Olympics’ produced a video with Nathan Chen before his championship performance last weekend, showing an interview NBC Sports did with him at 10 years old where he declares his intention to compete in the 2018 Olympic Games. Click here to see his reaction.

NBC Olympics conducted Facebook Lives throughout the week with 1992 Olympic and U.S. champion Kristi Yamaguchi, and 2006 Olympian and 2007 U.S. silver medalist Emily Hughes, reaching 1.8 million fans. In addition NBC Sports analysts, Tara Lipinski, the 1998 Olympic gold medalist and the youngest person to win a U.S. Championships title at 14, and three-time U.S. figure skating champion Johnny Weir conduced Facebook Lives on the Team USA Facebook page.

Hockey Goes Hollywood – NBC Sports Unveils Its Biggest NHL All-Star Game Consumer Engagement Plan Ever

With the movie capital of the world hosting the NHL’s biggest stars, NBC Sports is rolling out its biggest NHL All-Star Game engagement plan ever with “Hockey Goes Hollywood.” The multi-platform campaign weaves together this year’s NHL All-Stars with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood moviemaking, and many of Los Angeles’ world famous landmarks.

The “Hockey Goes Hollywood” plan contains pieces that will come to life across digital and social content, including:

  • “Audition”: Are they aspiring actors or aspiring All-Stars? “Audition” forces some of the game’s greatest players to audition in front of two insufferable casting agents for an All-Star roster spot in the stereotypical way an actor has to land a job in Hollywood. “Audition” will be used as long-form digital and social content, and will be cut into spots for television. Click here to watch the full video.
  • Movie Posters: NBC Sports has created four hockey versions of some of the movie industry’s most iconic pictures, which will be used extensively across its digital and social platforms. At noon ET on Wednesday, January 25, all NBC Sports and NHL social media accounts conducted a social media roadblock to promote the game in a coordinated effort, including using the hashtag #HockeyGoesHollywood.

Click here for more information.

Golf Advisor’s List of Top 50 Courses in the United States, Generated by More Than 100K Golfer Reviews, Revealed Today on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive Show

Golf Advisor announced its anticipated, annual list of Top-50 golf courses in the United States this week. The list was revealed from more than 100,000 authentic reviews posted in 2016 from golfers who use and depend on the world’s leading golf course ratings and review website.

Unlike rankings published by various golf publications, which normally are geared toward architecture or history and conducted by a panel of industry insiders, the Golf Advisor Top 50 is totally consumer-driven.  Ages, handicaps and budgets of golfers using the site run the gamut, so the nearly 600,000 reviews Golf Advisor has accumulated showcase the golf course characteristics that are most important to avid golfers across the country.  In addition to rating course layout, the Top 50 list also rates other subcategories like staff friendliness, pace of play, value and more. More than 2,000 U.S. golf courses were considered, having received the minimum 15 reviews to qualify for the Top 50.

Click here for more information and to view the list.

NBC Sports Group Surrounds NASCAR’s Stage-Based Race Format Announcement

On Monday, NASCAR announced strategic adjustments to the competition format of all three NASCAR national series in 2017. NBCSports.com and NBC Sports social media sites surrounded the news with the latest analysts from NBC Sports Group’s writers, Facebook Lives with NBC’s NASCAR announce team, and clips from the live simulcast of the announcement on NBCSN and FS1.

Analysis of the news from NASCARTalk can be found here, Facebook Lives with NBC Sports Group’s broadcast team can be found here, and clips of the simulcast can be found here.

CSN New England’s Gary Tanguay Hits the Road to Houston For Super Bowl LI on a Multi-City Tour — “Tanguay Takes America”

The New England Patriots are Super Bowl bound and will take on the Atlanta Falcons in Houston on Sunday, February 5th.  CSN New England’s Gary Tanguay is also Houston-bound, boarding a CSN trailer on his own road trip to Super Bowl LI – and fans can get an inside look as TANGUAY TAKES AMERICA!

Tanguay departed from the CSN studios in Burlington, Mass., Monday morning at 6 a.m. ET.  He has made several Patriots-related stops along the way and continues on his journey to Houston.

Patriots fans can follow Gary’s journey via @Gary_Tanguay and @CSNNE on Twitter and Facebook, as well as on CSNNE.com and on CSN’s television programming.

–NBC SPORTS DIGITAL–