Social network chatter block Olympics coverage

Sunday, July 29, 2012 | 11:10 AM

LONDON, England — We are, apparently, talking too much. Electronically, at least.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says social media users helped cause problems for traditional broadcasters during the first big event of the London Olympics.

Television viewers watching the men’s cycling on Saturday got little information about the riders’ location and timings on the 250-kilometre (155mile) road course. Broadcasters, whose commentators were also deprived of information, blamed the Olympics Broadcasting Service for the glitch with GPS signals.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams says the OBS service was jammed by “hundreds of thousands” of people sending texts, pictures and updates to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Acknowledges Adams: “We should have foreseen that.”

The problem appeared to be solved for the women’s road race Sunday.

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