Airlines with live TV on board

[Mattg]

I was flying from SIN to SYD on Singapore Airlines yesterday while the Matildas were playing. Quite a lot of people on board were watching the game on the in-flight entertainment system, which offers four live channels - three TV stations (including BBC World News & CNN) and a sport channel.



I think this is a great feature.

I've also seen live TV offered on the following airlines:

• Turkish Airlines
• Emirates
• Etihad
• Qatar Airways
• ANA
• Lufthansa (live sport on long-haul flights)
• United (on some of the older short-haul aircraft)

Which other airlines offer live TV on board?

 

[marks]

@Mattg Did you see this? The penalty shootout finale!
But one non-supporter watching LOTR!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1690324400326008832

Which trainspotter can identify the Airline with extra points for the airframe type.

 

[kpc]

Not Qantas!
Or Malaysian.

 

[SYD]

Cathay had live TV on recent flights.

 

[Nemeca]

Alaska in the US. I remember when the Brett Kavanaugh hearing was on I walked back to my seat from the toilets and every single person was watching it…..except my 15 yo daughter

 

[frodo]

Every airline review will talk about the seat, the service, and the food, but it's features like this (and the exterior tail cameras) that I think makes such a big difference to the in-flight experience also

 

[Forg]

Every airline review will talk about the seat, the service, and the food, but it's features like this (and the exterior tail cameras) that I think makes such a big difference to the in-flight experience also

Well … if you think about it, it’s only the equivalent of one extra “show” in the IFE.
What does a mid-spec airline have in it’s IFE catalogue, 50 movies and maybe 50 TV shows? So add 10 TV channels & that becomes 50 movies & 60 TV shows … and to the top-spec airlines it makes less difference.

You might notice it in the stated scenario where there’s a big event on, but how often is there an event on while you’re in the air?

Technically it’s no biggie, as they have internet access & most FTA channels are going to be available online.

 

[SYD]

I was flying from SIN to SYD on Singapore Airlines yesterday while the Matildas were playing. Quite a lot of people on board were watching the game on the in-flight entertainment system, which offers four live channels - three TV stations (including BBC World News & CNN) and a sport channel.

I think this is a great feature.

I've also seen live TV offered on the following airlines:

• Turkish Airlines
• Emirates
• Etihad
• Qatar Airways
• ANA
• Lufthansa (live sport on long-haul flights)
• United (on some of the older short-haul aircraft)

Which other airlines offer live TV on board?

Funny story about watching live TV flying EY a couple of years ago. I received an Op Up from J to F flying CDG-AUH and the onboard “Chef” was chatting about how she “cooks” (reheats) the steak. She was South African and mentioned that she was a fan of Reuben Riffel (SA Celebrity Chef - I’d never heard of him).

Anyway, I’m watching BBC and a piece about Cape Town and SA food comes on - hosted by none other than Reuben Riffel! I grabbed her attention and said “Turn the Tele on” .

Anyway, the steak was indeed very good and I’ve since been to two Reuben’s restaurants (Franschhoek and the now closed V&A Waterfront).

 

[TheRealTMA]

@Mattg Did you see this? The penalty shootout finale!
But one non-supporter watching LOTR!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1690324400326008832

Which trainspotter can identify the Airline with extra points for the airframe type.

EK Y I believe.

 

[jb747]

How horrid!

 

[RooFlyer]

Every airline review will talk about the seat, the service, and the food, but it's features like this (and the exterior tail cameras) that I think makes such a big difference to the in-flight experience also

yes, I was in EY First a number of years ago, and I was just tucking into dinner and only then realised that the rugby World Cup with Australia playing in one of the finals was on - absolutely made the flight

 

[marks]

yes, I was in EY First a number of years ago, and I was just tucking into dinner and only then realised that the rugby World Cup with Australia playing in one of the finals was on - absolutely made the flight

At least you had access to a fine cellar to get over the enviable poor result from the Wallabies....

 

[WilsonM]

Also flying SQ from LHR-SIN - the flight timing was perfect to watch all of the Premier League games live, so my seatmate and I did just that for 8 hours - 4 back to back games. How good

 

[laffer]

Is SQ offering it across all their flights now or is it still limited to a350?

 

[Gold Member]

@Mattg Did you see this? The penalty shootout finale!
But one non-supporter watching LOTR!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1690324400326008832

Which trainspotter can identify the Airline with extra points for the airframe type.

Watching that video of the cabin in view watching and supporting the Aussie women’s team makes me wonder. And I’m sure this will go down like a sack of cough, but am I the only person that doesn’t enjoy women’s sport? Each to their own but it doesn’t cut it for me.

< I’m sure this won’t go down well >

 

[Mattg]

Is SQ offering it across all their flights now or is it still limited to a350?

I was on a Boeing 777-300ER

Watching that video of the cabin in view watching and supporting the Aussie women’s team makes me wonder. And I’m sure this will go down like a sack of cough, but am I the only person that doesn’t enjoy women’s sport? Each to their own but it doesn’t cut it for me.

< I’m sure this won’t go down well >

Could I kindly suggest that there are other places to discuss the merits of women's sport outside of AFF. The topic of this thread is which airlines offer live TV on board.

 

[djkelly69]

Delta (domestic) does - had quite similar scenes of most people on the plane watching the men's football World Cup at the end of last year.

I think AA as well but not 100% on that.

 

[Forg]

I was on a Boeing 777-300ER



Could I kindly suggest that there are other places to discuss the merits of women's sport outside of AFF. The topic of this thread is which airlines offer live TV on board.

From the perspective of someone who doesn't care about any sport, the only value I can think of in onboard TV for me would be if I had enough interest in current affairs to be watching a current news channel ... but then I've been soured on the relationship between flights & news-channels by the QF lounges having had Sky News Australia playing every time I paid attention to the TV ... I thought for a number of years that Sky News was a channel that only existed for playing in airports or something like that, similar to when you hear Coles Radio playing in a Coles supermarket.

[except Alan Jones was never singing any yacht-rock, so ...]

From a technical POV it'd have to be fairly simple, each channel they offer would be streamed into the IFE system via Teh Intarwebz rather than each end-user having a separate stream ... it wouldn't use as much data as however-many-people-on-a-777-are-using-free-Intarwebz to play their YouTubes.

 

[SYD]

From a technical POV it'd have to be fairly simple, each channel they offer would be streamed into the IFE system via Teh Intarwebz rather than each end-user having a separate stream ... it wouldn't use as much data as however-many-people-on-a-777-are-using-free-Intarwebz to play their YouTubes.

I assume live TV is just a one way satellite broadcast service (Sat cable service). It’s not new tech. Been around for years - just not widely implemented.

 

[kpro]

From a technical POV it'd have to be fairly simple, each channel they offer would be streamed into the IFE system via Teh Intarwebz

I assume live TV is just a one way satellite broadcast service (Sat cable service). It’s not new tech. Been around for years - just not widely implemented.

Yes, it would likely be a dedicated channel being broadcast on a satellite rather then using the internet connection and dealing with overheads and other issues related to that.

Live TV has been around for years and years, even before the advent of in flight internet. DJ Live2Air service anyone? Did that work off the existing Foxtel/Austar satellite or was there a separate one?