Eithad to introduce Live TV to boost IFE Selection

Eithad Airways is planning to introduce live TV on its widebody jets, with the following channels being streamed in the first phase going live on the 1st November:

• BBC World News
• BBC Arabic
• euronews
• Sport 24

In the second wave during November, the following channels will join

• CNBC
• NHK World Premium (Japan)
• CNN

Sky News Arabia will follow in the coming months.

In addition, Eithad will be a good choice who like their motor racing action, as they will broadcast Formula 1 races, including the last 3 of the current season:

• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Sunday, November 3
• US Grand Prix on Sunday, November 17
• Brazil Grand Prix on Sunday, November 24

(Although lets face it, there’s not much to watch as the F1 Drivers championship is over now… Saying that F1 wasn’t that exciting this year…)

For those who don’t like Formula 1, there will live streaming of various sporting events including ATP World Tour Finals, English Premier League and German Bundesliga matches, and Euroleague Basketball in November, with most of 2014’s big showcase events (FIFA World Cup, The 2014 Winter Olympics, etc) to be streamed through the Sport 24 channel.

The plan is to introduce the coverage on 21 of Etihad Airways wide body aircraft (no type specified, although I’d be surprised if it’s not the 777-300ERs) by 7th November, with all 37 widebody aircraft to get Live coverage by end of 2014.

There must had been one hell of a negotiated solution to get this service running (in terms of content owners and satellite/streamed data provision).

Still – it could beat some of the stuff on the In Flight Entertainment devices hands down…

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