New SEC media policy could affect fans

LSU fans who Tweet about Tiger football or post YouTube videos could find themselves running afoul of a new SEC media policy, warns the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. The conference wants to keep as many fans as possible looking at CBS and ESPN, as part of the league’s lucrative TV deal with the networks. To that end, the SEC is setting stringent limits on reporters and how much audio, video and real time blogging they can do at games, practices and news conferences. While there’s been a lot of public outcry from media outlets, the policy also affects people in the stands, who wouldn’t be allowed to shoot photos or video with their phones and then post them on the Web. The newspaper says the policy won’t immediately affect fans—it’s pretty difficult to police 92,000 people in Tiger Stadium. But the issue is what technological leaps will happen in the next five years. “I would guess,” says Mike Masnick, the editor of the blog Techdirt, “that they’re realizing that anyone can be a reporter or a broadcaster these days. And for them, that’s pretty scary.” Read the story here.