On Wednesday, the IT service provider at the Pentagon sent an email to employees asking them not to stream March Madness games at work. While not explicitly forbidding any on-the-clock basketball-watching, the Joint Service Provider (JSP) asked employees to consider their bandwidth use. The email, obtained by CBS News, reads, “Please keep in mind; if you’re streaming video to watch your favorite player shooting free throws, you’re consuming network resources that could be served to support the Warfighter [an informal term for military personnel].”
Defense Department asks employees not to stream March Madness games on Pentagon network
Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images
JSP said its engineers would “closely monitor bandwidth consumption” and presumably warn sports fans who are a little too rabid in their viewing practices. As Deadspin points out, today is the first day of the NCAA tournament, so the desire to stream should be pretty high.
Watching the games later tonight is always an option, but in that case, the JSP email should’ve also reminded employees to stay off Sports Twitter today.
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