British Airways will shortly be launching a new entertainment option, as reported by PYOK. This seems positive, on the surface. However, one wonders what British Airways’ real motive here is…
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British Airways adds streaming entertainment
British Airways currently offers seat back entertainment throughout its entire wide body, long haul fleet. While that will continue to be the case (for now), British Airways is also going to introduce streaming entertainment on select long haul flights. With this, passengers will be able to stream movies, TV shows, and music, directly to their own devices, through the airplane Wi-Fi portal.
This will reportedly go live as of late July 2025, and this will be rolled out on a limited basis, to select aircraft. The streaming entertainment is expected to be offered on Airbus A380s, Boeing 787-9s with Wi-Fi, and Boeing 777-200ERs with the older inflight entertainment systems.
On the surface, this seems like a positive. After all, another entertainment option is being added, without anything being taken away… right?
What’s British Airways’ real motive here?
British Airways is known for its “creative” cost cutting experiments. The airline dominates slot-controlled Heathrow, so as much as British Airways executives like to tout how premium the airline is, the company’s actions often don’t reflect that.
If British Airways genuinely wanted to improve the passenger experience, you’d think that the airline would introduce streaming entertainment on narrow body, short haul aircraft, no? After all, those are the planes that don’t have any seat back entertainment, and where it would be nice to stream entertainment to your own device.
So is British Airways really just trying to offer passengers choice, or is the airline introducing streaming entertainment to see what passengers have to say about it in post-flight surveys? Could the airline eventually eliminate seat back entertainment due to “customer feedback?”
Streaming entertainment is very much the norm on long haul flights, so on the surface, you’d think British Airways couldn’t get away with that. At the same time, with how consumer trends evolve, I can’t help but wonder how much longer that will consistently be the case:
- The screens add quite a bit of weight, and the cost to install them also isn’t insignificant
- Then there’s the cost of maintaining the system, since like all technology, it can break
- On top of that, technology evolves quickly, so it doesn’t take long for screens to feel outdated
At a minimum, I wouldn’t be surprised if British Airways is hoping this gets positive feedback, so that it can consider introducing streaming entertainment on its leisure-oriented, Gatwick-based Boeing 777s. That’s not to say it’ll actually happen, but I think that’s the minimum that British Airways is likely considering.
Anyway, we’ll mark this as “developing” for now, and see how this plays out over time.
Bottom line
British Airways will reportedly be introducing streaming entertainment on select long haul aircraft as of later this month. What makes this unusual is that these planes already have seat back entertainment. You’d think streaming entertainment would be a better fit for short haul aircraft, where there’s currently no entertainment.
It’s anyone’s guess how this plays out, but I have a hard time imagining that British Airways’ genuine intention is to just give passengers another option for staying entertained, rather than seeing some opportunity to cut costs.
What do you make of British Airways’ streaming entertainment development?
“Bring your own tablet, along with your laptop, so that we can skim off the fees certain countries charge for bringing multiple devices into their country” - BA and AA
I mean, BA is OneWorld for heaven's sake.
You know, like the folks at AA who are suddenly scrambling to be "premium".
Commentators moan and groan if an airline removes or reduces an inflight service.
Commentators moan and groan if an airline adds an additional inflight service.
Commentators moan and groan if an airline simply announces that they might make improvements or changes.
There is no pleasing some commenters and especially those who have no intention of flying with the subject airline anyway.
Complain. Complain. Complain.
I don't care about seatback IFE on domestic flights. I download some good stuff from a streaming service, and I'm good. Take it out of TA or TP flights, and it will make a difference on who I use.
How long before they charge for inflight entertainment ?
I think you're right. Sounds a great deal like BA once again spending vast amounts of time and energy to find ways to screw the customer rather than drawing more business by improving their product.
So Christian …. adding a streaming service is not “Improving their service”?
It's a bad Idea. I don't own a tablet anymore. And on leisure trips I don't want to take my laptop with me or stream on my phone, plus you couldnt watch anything during your dinner on long flights... I'm anyway not a fan of Wifi on board, I mean if you work onboard its okay, but otherwise that time I always enjoy just beeing offline and I lot a people could need some offline time.
It would defintly be a no Fly airline for me on long distance flight if it comes.
Matt Scrooge?
There is always one fish who wants to ‘swim’ against the tide!
I'm just off a BA longhaul during which the wifi didn't work at all but the IFE, terrible as it was, did. Imagine the howls and screams of protest from parents who need to lock down their kids with cartoons for those seven hours for it to be a manageable experience if wifi not working meant no entertainment. Imagine the screams and cries of children torturing everyone else. Personally, I also don't want to have...
I'm just off a BA longhaul during which the wifi didn't work at all but the IFE, terrible as it was, did. Imagine the howls and screams of protest from parents who need to lock down their kids with cartoons for those seven hours for it to be a manageable experience if wifi not working meant no entertainment. Imagine the screams and cries of children torturing everyone else. Personally, I also don't want to have to worry about taking an iPad everywhere (I sometimes leave mine at home so no additional thing to worry about through security or extra weight) or having to worry about it being powered up for a whole journey if there's an issue, as there often is, with outlets on the plane. Even just fussing around to get a device out with limited space is less preferable to a seatback screen.
I believe there might be two parts on board WiFi - the internet connection to the outside world, and then the local area connection to an onboard server with the IFE. The external link may be down but the internal streaming should still work. Unless the WiFi router itself has gone tech…
Good. I don't need people constantly poking the back of my seat on a transatlantic flight. Or an overnight flight lit up with the glow of a bunch of seatbacks screens that are on but not actually being watched.
The simple solution to your predicament Bob, is not to be so mean as to only buy a Y ticket.
Try to break the habit of a lifetime and splash out on either an F or J ticket on a World Class airline. Trust me, thousands of hours of BA and other exceptional airline flights have been well worthwhile.
These days, whenever I see many new ideas coming from airline boardrooms, it rings "Yet another stupid idea generated in the name of supposed 'customer feedback' ".
For the record, I don't use a smartphone or tablet/Ipad (though I have a laptop). So having an IFE to use is pretty nice, and although I don't watch very many TVs or films to reduce screen time onboard, I quite like inflight maps.
Considering the progress...
These days, whenever I see many new ideas coming from airline boardrooms, it rings "Yet another stupid idea generated in the name of supposed 'customer feedback' ".
For the record, I don't use a smartphone or tablet/Ipad (though I have a laptop). So having an IFE to use is pretty nice, and although I don't watch very many TVs or films to reduce screen time onboard, I quite like inflight maps.
Considering the progress Delta and United have made in adding inflight screens on short haul flights, this would be a step in the wrong direction if IFE is extinct. But wouldn't be surprising given BA only stands for Bloody Awful once again.
Not relevant to the article, but hard not to notice similar trajectories between British Airways and Great Britain. Once great, majestic, and hopeful brands tarnished by a culture of mediocrity and no frills.
Many of their long-haul screens on aging planes are glitchy at best. I'm sure they'd like to be like their oneworld partner AA and try and go without screens. But even AA kept them on long-haul. Personally I'd be ok without a screen, but I can understand why they are better to have than not on long haul.
No problem without seatback screens for me. I never use them for anything except the flight map. Just give me a device holder.
Terrible idea for me. I always use them and don’t have an iPad. If this was rolled out I’d just avoid BA.
As someone who uses the small iPhone SE (super practical), I am definitely not interested to watch any in-flight movies on my device (nor am I downloading e-journals, I rather bring my own).
But, as airlines have the right to offer any service they choose and/or introduce whatever novelty they want, I on the other hand have a right to take my money where I feel I get the best value for.
I have a 16 Pro, slightly bigger than yours but I wouldn't use it either. It's not even a matter of screen size, the IFE screen is comfortably positioned in front of my eyes, meanwhile I can only keep my phone on the tray table.
Agree. I do bring my iPad when I am flying Alaska because the WiFi is excellent and content is really good.
I am an older guy and I just cant enjoy a movie on my 16Pro. Too small. And thank you Delta for seat back screens.
My money is on they pull back setback IFE in economy and keep things as they are on J and F. BA has always been governed more by greed than anything else so the financial gain of doing away with IFE in coach (no headphones, no maintenance, weight gains, potential rise in advertising revenue) will make it impossible to resist for them.
Governed by greed? All businesses are about maximising returns for their shareholders. BA is very good at it and is one of the highest returning airlines in the world. Passengers have lots of options and can vote with their feet which would reduce their returns, but so far they haven’t.
"Streaming entertainment is very much the norm on long haul flights, "
Did you mean seat back entertainment here instead?
Everyone has a screen in their pocket. Why have backseat screens in economy?
Those screens are still too small to watch stuff reliably.
And not everyone has screens on their pocket. Take a family with gramps and multiple little children, now how do you manage that situation? iPads don’t grow on trees
An interesting observation Eve, “iPads don’t grow on trees” …. actually I buy mine direct from Apple or John Lewis.
I’m a “Gramps and (my) multiple little (grand) children all have one, don’t yours?
AA eliminated the screens in their narrowbodies and it was a mistake now they lag behing UA and DL so BA eliminating it in long haul widebodies it would be even worse.
How do safety briefings currently work on wide-body aircraft without seat back screens? I've never had that experience. Are there a dozen flight attendants scattered throughout the aircraft demonstrating how to buckle the seat belt?
I've seen that on a BA 777 when the screens were not functioning and push-back wasn't going to be delayed "We'll reboot it after take-off". The purser had the usual bag of belts and lifejackets that she handed out to FAs. Just one FA did her physical demo at the front of the huge Y section. I guess those who couldn't see her clearly went back to their books/phones as per usual.....
I wonder if BA or any other airline will test a cheaper form (less integrated in the to seat) of seat back entertainment, by handing out tablet screen to use as people board (concept used for some business/first class before). I think device cost would be less, and it would be easier to do maintenence work but maybe maintenance frequency will increase.
I remember reading that Delta uses a solution on their newer aircraft which is basically a tablet, making it lighter and also easier to maintain.
great idea but again, that would require original thought from the C suite folks.
Before BA's 777s arrived with seatback IFE in the mid-90s, and before the 747s were updated with seatback IFE in the late 90s, the 747s had projectors that would project onto a big white screen at the central bulkhead - each cabin with a bulkhead in front had a projector and screen, even F. (the upperdeck had to make do with a few CRT TV screens suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the...
Before BA's 777s arrived with seatback IFE in the mid-90s, and before the 747s were updated with seatback IFE in the late 90s, the 747s had projectors that would project onto a big white screen at the central bulkhead - each cabin with a bulkhead in front had a projector and screen, even F. (the upperdeck had to make do with a few CRT TV screens suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the aisle). Everyone watched the safety demonstration on the big screen at the front, and the crew stood much where they do today. Inflight your IFE choice was watch the big screen, or listen to the pre-recorded radio channels. The big screen tape had maybe 5-8hrs of content, and then start over again. This got *very* repetitive when flying LHR-SIN-PER-AKL all the way through on the same aircraft!
I fly on older BA A320s all the time and there's nowhere within your eyeline to attach your own device. They don't have device holders like other airlines do (and I have 3 different versions of a phone cradle that doesn't attach anywhere either), so you end up with your phone propped up on the tray table and a stiff neck after an hour :(
All they need to do is offer free, fast WiFi that actually works and they will never have to worry about IFE again
Not everyone is keen to drain their device’s and headset’s battery and take extra space positioning it in the already crammed space.
I'll all hands in favour of entertainment on one's own device. Who wants to spend half an hour trying to understand how an outdated UI is working while you could just use Netflix instead (and get better content)?
This wouldn't be as big of an issue if an airline had high speed wifi that is available for free and capable of streaming as well. It should also have a moving live map feature as well. If that is the case, then I'm all for it.
Nowadays, most if not all people have their own personal tablets. Now, I do think that if an airline was to get rid of IFE in economy on...
This wouldn't be as big of an issue if an airline had high speed wifi that is available for free and capable of streaming as well. It should also have a moving live map feature as well. If that is the case, then I'm all for it.
Nowadays, most if not all people have their own personal tablets. Now, I do think that if an airline was to get rid of IFE in economy on long-haul flights, then they should also stock some extra tablets that can be loaned to passengers who don't have their own device. People's devices can break, and there may be families who don't have enough personal tablets for everyone. Unfortunately, I doubt BA would go that route should they eliminate seatback screens on widebodies. So I am still skeptical and personally I wouldn't like the industry going in this direction.