London 2012 Olympics: IOC say Twitter may have affected TV coverage

THE International Olympic Committee has been a champion of social media but it has suggested that the huge number of Twitter users during the men’s and women’s cycling road races affected TV coverage.

BBC commentators were unable to receive electronic timing and position updates and blamed the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS) for the lack of information, which left Chris Boardman trying to make do using his own watch.

But IOC communications director Mark Adams said around a million people lined the roads with many using social media, which effectively jammed transmissions.

Adams said: “One network was oversubscribed and OBS are trying to spread the load to other providers. We don’t want to stop people engaging in this by social media and sending updates, but perhaps they might consider only sending urgent updates.”

Timings are sent via tiny GPS transmitters in competitors’ bikes and it was these messages that were not being received.