NowThis Signs Paralympics Content Pact As Games Kick Off In Pyeongchang

NowThis, the Group Nine-owned digital media brand, has forged a deal to distribute content from The Paralympic Games, which kick off tonight in Pyeongchang.

The Paralympics are held after the Olympics each summer and winter, and sees athletes with a range of disabilities in competition. NowThis’ recently-launched sporting vertical, dubbed NowThis Sports, has partnered with the Games’ governing body, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), in a bid to to elevate awareness of the event among millennials. The content offer will include live streams of competitions and medal ceremonies, athlete profiles and interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage. Video will be distributed across Facebook, where NowThis Sports counts 186,000 followers, as well as Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Furthermore, the long-term partnership between NowThis and the IPC will extend beyond the Pyeongchang Winter Games to the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo — and will also comprise numerous Para-sporting events in between.

“This partnership aligns perfectly with the editorial mission of NowThis Sports, to uncover and tell the inspirational and aspirational stories of athletes,” said NowThis president Athan Stephanopoulos in a statement. “Our goal with the IPC is to not simply profile the emotional stories of these athletes and their disabilities, but to also raise broader awareness of the athletes themselves and the impressive athletic feats they are accomplishing.” In addition to Sports, NowThis operates 10 other content verticals — including Politics, Future, Her, and Money — and says it gets 2.6 billion monthly video views.

The pact follows a 10-part branded video series between NowThis, the IPC, and Toyota that launched during the World Para Alpine World Cup — an elite disabled skiing competition that the IPC also oversees — in January. That campaign garnered 100 million global impressions, NowThis says.

Check out one of the first fruits of the new partnership, a profile of the 17-year-old skiing sensation Arthur Bauchet, below: