Facebook and NBC are expected to partner up for the upcoming 2012 Olympics, giving one company a stronger hook into the social media universe and the other an easy bit of publicity.
However, not a dime is going to exchange hands between the social and broadcast giants as a result of the deal - it's all content and promotion.
On the NBC side of the equation, the network is expected to deliver exclusive content for Olympic fans who "Like" the company's Facebook page dedicated to the events.
And that includes the usual litany of tie-ins that will allow Facebook users to see when their friends watch related videos or read articles on NBC's official 2012 Olympics site.
NBC-Facebook in detail
NBC will run a "Talk Meter" poll during some parts of its Olympics coverage to gauge what Facebook users are chatting about in relation to the games.
Facebook will also run an NBC-generated poll about the 2012 Olympics each day.
"We know that a social conversation will surround the Olympics," said NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel in a published report.
The Facebook partnership, he said, is the way that NBC can participate in the conversation as both a listener and voice.
NBC also plans to use Facebook's behind-the-scenes data on Olympic conversations and mentions to fuel related coverage and stories.
Wherefore art thou Twitter?
However, Facebook's not going to be NBC's only source for real-time information related to popular opinion surrounding the 2012 Olympics.
According to Zenkel, NBC plans to bring back the "Twitter tracker" that it used during its coverage of the 2012 Winter Games in Vancouver.
The tracker served as a real-time visualization representative of the kinds of social updates that the network's users were posting - when a ton of tweets flooded in about a particular athlete, his or her photos and overall presence in the tracker would grow as part of larger Olympic mosaic.
When news about another athlete or situation grew in popularity, the mosaic's boxes would shift around in proportion to accurately reflect Twitter users' new opinions.
