Onboard Entertainment

tadjr

Veteran
Aug 19, 2002
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TPA
www.airlineforums.com
[P]Just recently completed a vacation trip on 2 other carriers (since we dont go where I went) and wanted to thank the WN, CO and HP( Reno handling for CO) agents and crews. Had a great time going and coming without any problems, except for the old TSA AND random select search. How many times do you guys want to check out my dirty underwear, but thats another topic altogether.[/P]
[P]Now to the subject at hand. One of the carriers (and the first guess doesnt count) had onboard entertainment on both flights. A movie on the first leg and short programming on the second (the bad news is it was the Reba show). If you had your own headsets, IT WAS FREE!!, and if not, they charged only $2 and let you keep the headsets for the next flight. [/P]
[P]My question to anyone in the know is - Why arent we doing this on the planes equipped with video? It sure would be a great way to provide extra service without having to do anything other than a short walk thru the cabin to sell the headsets and popping in the video. How hard is that? It would provide some alternative to jetblues DTV and more than many of the other carriers offer. How can it be a bad idea? There is the cost of the video itself, but most of the programming we could use from the stuff we already have on international flights. Is there any other cost involved? Friends, Frasier, Will and Grace, etc would be a welcome diversion to what we offer now. It was also a great way for them to advertise to a captive audience. I know that may seem redundant since they are already flying on your plane, but you can SHOW the ease of eticket checkin, advertise new service (CO is flying big time to Colorado Ski Country this year) or see a short welcome from Dave. Is there anyone in CCY who would like to come up with a Good and Positive Idea right now? We could use some positives right now to divert attention from all of the great missteps we''ve seemed to have blundered out recently.[/P]
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Popping in a tape may be too labor intensive.....I will say that both HP/CO are a pleasure to fly.....even thou HP gets 'bad-mouthed' here in its home port of PHX.....much like US in St. Pete' local paper....
 
I had this very discussion with the manager of in-flight entertainment 1 week ago after my complaints about the inconsistancies of the personal TV selections on 767 domestic runs.

What he told me is basically, US pays for every exhibition of their material regardless of whether it's a movie or short programming (i.e. a Royalty). He said that to be profitable, it only makes sense to run anything on flights over 3 hours. While other airlines may show material on their shorter flights, they are incurring a cost.
 
How much in Royalties do you think the Reba show would get? All the while (during normal commercial breaks for the show) the WB had their own ads in promo. Could be able to work out free programming for some free advertising from some offbeat networks. [BR]I thought we were paying big bucks for people to have new and innovative ideas in CCY or are we still INSIDE the box?