The Qantas in-flight news will soon no longer be produced by Nine, after reports the airline will switch to SKY News.
The Australian reports has a tender process has been won by Multi Channel Network and SKY, as part of a broader deal.
SKY News will provide multiple news bulletins while Foxtel and FOX Sports will provide additional content.
Group executive brand marketing and corporate affairs Olivia Wirth said, “SKY News, Foxtel and FOX Sports were able to offer us an integrated package of news, entertainment and sport, with a focus on ‘on-demand’, which is central to how they already deliver their content.
Qantas will be able to tap in to Live SKY News bulletins before aircraft depart as well as Live news in lounges overseas from 2015.
Foxtel previously supplied a Live2Air in-flight entertainment service on Virgin Blue.
Weatherman, are you seriously saying that you’re updated on the news every minute of the day? If you haven’t heard something before, then it’s news to you.
MJL, Murdoch doesn’t even own one-third of Sky News, his one-third owned BSkyB does. But it’s painfully obvious he controls editorial at Sky News. But I suppose you think ABC News is biased?
Thanks, Jason. I understand that that system is fairly expensive and relatively new. It is also designed for smaller private business jets, as listed in your copy-pasta. Do they have any systems in regular commercial aircraft currently in service with Australian routes?
You have to do some nifty electronic tricks to keep the receiver trained on the satellite because the Ku beam is very narrow. I’ve no doubt it’ll eventually become bog-standard (like just about everybody having a mobile phone) but I don’t think we’re quite there yet.
@Secret Squirrel – From AeroSat, who supply such equipment. “The Tail-Mounted Satellite Aircraft TV Antenna System provides satellite television reception worldwide to private business jet aircraft, such as those produced by Gulfstream, Bombardier (including Challenger and Global brands) and Dassault (including Falcon aircraft). The system receives satellite television signals enabling passengers to view hundreds of live broadcasts and is mounted inside the tail of a standard business jet aircraft”.
I was frustrated when Qantas News was ignoring MH370 news. We were all waiting for updates on whether it had been found and it didn’t rate a mention. I guess MH17 is also not up for discussion. An old rule that should go.
Looking foring forward to more sports covered on SKY, that just league
I flew Mel-Bris two weeks ago and the “news” consisted of a few fleeting mentions of world and local affairs and a whopping five minutes on the upcoming birthday of Prince George (which was still a week away at the point).
@laurie – where would the signal come from? No terrestrial transmission wastes energy by transmitting up into the sky and, with the plane travelling at 15 km a minute, someone would have to keep changing the channel (assuming that they weren’t over the ocean or desert).
Satellite’s won’t help either because you have to track them with your receiving dish.
Murdoch only owns a third of a third of Sky News.
There is some lefty paranoia out there thinking Sky are bias.
Sky News on Qantas?
So, lots of stories about how great the Coalition is and why Abbott and his ilk are the saviours of the land?
And then lots of stories about climate change being a fraud, and how dollars for education is a bad thing, why the ABC needs to go and how hacking people’s phones is a good thing.
Can. Not. Wait.
Another brilliant move by Alan Joyce.
You would think Live broadcast could be available direct on the flight?
It’s so hard to escape Murdoch in this country. Enough to make you want to live somewhere else
I often found the recorded news content on aircraft to be old news. It wasn’t worth viewing because it was already out of date by the time it is shown on-board.