Yes — that’s the SEC as in Southeastern Conference — university athletic programs in the Southeastern United States. LUCRATIVE athletic programs in many cases. Big Money.
You have to wonder whether these folks ever took college business courses that covered case studies about the Horse & Buggy companies that failed to understand and adapt to (then) cataclysmic marketplace changes. Earlier this month the SEC attempted some really drastic suppression of Social Media use by fans at their games to protect broadcast contracts with CBS (reported to be worth $3B over 15 years) and their own interests.
They apparently see the fans use of Social Media, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. to be online business competition that would negatively affect CBS returns. Yikes! What planet have these folks been on? Well, there are many things going on here. Digital Rights Management issues are always troublesome, but they are missing a fundamental grasp of what’s at work here.
Round 1 — earlier this month the SEC produced this edict: “Ticketed fans can’t produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event.”
Well, as you can imagine, that didn’t go over so well with the fans. In fact, they were forced to back off that. After all, most of the people in the stands are not doing anything but networking online with their pals.
The SEC really wasn’t out to control casual fan use – but they did show an abyssal lack of understanding about major changes in consumer behavior when a smarter move would have been to encourage, facilitate and capitalize on fans viral marketing on their behalf. Presumably what they were really after was the growing body of professional & semi-pro Internet entrepreneurs who piggyback off of the high-quality material that strategic partners like CBS produce, add more to it, and then use it for their commercial purposes on fan sites, etc. It’s big business.
Round 2 — by mid-month the outrage among the fans caused them to back off that draconian edit, to a lesser stance prohibiting real-time distribution of photographs and video of their games. They let their fans become fodder in their larger online business competition battle — who controls the digital rights to myriad aspects of spectator sports. That won’t get resolved easily, it’s a battle that rages at all levels with some really stupid behavior involved, like this.
What I find most interesting is this: They Don’t Get It. Social Media can be a real Bonanza to any business when it is creatively leveraged. Fans that send live pictures of a great catch to friends who then all start chatting it up are what most businesses dream about — engaged customers who evangelize to others and get them excited as well. Think of the possibilities… $$$
Yes, new digital technology and how it may erode their control of the revenue coming from sports is a big issue — but there are probably far more gains to be made from creative leverage of that activity – at the fan level and with outright business competitors — than losses. At any rate, no one has ever won in the long run by trying to suppress technology advances. (well… unless you count oil companies 
)
The consumer is in the catbird seat now. And yes, that creates some different competitive challenges. This is not going away and you can’t ram edicts down the throats of those consumers caught in the middle and expect them to meekly obey. So much more pleasant to join them.
