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…
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?
