American Airlines launches Entertainment On Demand

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines, a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, today announced the initial phase of the launch of Entertainment On Demand – an inflight streaming video product

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines, a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, today announced the initial phase of the launch of Entertainment On Demand – an inflight streaming video product – as a brand-new, innovative inflight entertainment option for customers on board its entire fleet of 15 Boeing 767-200 aircraft. American is the first North American airline to offer inflight streaming video, which enables customers to wirelessly stream content such as movies and TV shows from an inflight library to select types of Wi-Fi-enabled laptops during flights.

“We’ve been deeply involved in developing the concept of streaming video with Gogo, as part of our vision of continuing to elevate the travel experience by pushing the envelope with our inflight entertainment offerings,” said Rob Friedman, American’s Vice President – Marketing. “We continue to execute this strategy and lead in this space by making prudent investments in innovative, cutting-edge technologies. During this initial phase of launch, Entertainment On Demand allows customers to access content through select personal Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, and in the coming months Gogo intends to make tablets and other devices available for use with the product.”

Entertainment On Demand is now available on board American Airlines flights operated by a 767-200 aircraft – primarily transcontinental flights between New York JFK and Los Angeles and JFK and San Francisco – for the introductory price of 99 cents per TV show and $3.99 per movie. Customers do not have to purchase inflight Wi-Fi to utilize Entertainment On Demand. Using their own compatible personal Wi-Fi-enabled laptop, customers simply click on the Entertainment On Demand banner on the inflight Wi-Fi homepage, select a movie or TV show from the popular titles housed in the content library, create an account or log in, enter the form of payment and click “rent.” All major credit and debit cards are accepted. To view a demonstration of Entertainment On Demand, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ_HyK-FgzY.

The inflight library features more than 100 movies and TV shows from major Hollywood studios to offer customers a variety of entertainment choices. Customers can sort titles by movie or TV, genre, length of feature, and other categories. Trailers are available for complimentary viewing prior to renting content. Movies and TV shows will remain accessible for viewing after the customer has landed – movies for 24 hours and TV shows for 72 hours. Unexpired rentals will be available for playback on the ground by using the same device and browser used on board.

American began testing the new inflight video system on two Boeing 767-200 aircraft in May and received FAA certification this month. While American is rolling out Entertainment On Demand to its entire fleet of 767-200s for customer use, the product will continue to evolve over time. The airline’s goal is to roll out this product on all of American’s Wi-Fi-enabled aircraft beginning later this year, pending FAA certifications.

American’s Entertainment On Demand is powered by the Gogo system. Movies and TV shows are stored on the onboard server, allowing the air-to-ground connection to be fully available for American’s Wi-Fi product. During this initial phase of launch, select personal Wi-Fi- enabled laptops are compatible with Entertainment On Demand. Gogo is currently working to increase the number of compatible devices and intends to make tablets and other devices available for use with Entertainment On Demand in the coming months.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...