Passengers travelling on domestic flights with Qantas will soon be able to watch their favourite shows, avoid missing live sport and listen to tracks by their favourite artists, thanks to an agreement struck by the national airline that will bring Foxtel, Netflix and Spotify to the entertainment systems of Wi-Fi enabled flights.
Qantas now offers customers video and audio streaming, thanks to its new Wi-Fi service, which is due to be launched on the first domestic aircraft imminently.
The service offers speeds up to ten times faster than conventional inflight Wi-Fi and will be rolled out to the rest of the airline's fleet of domestic Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 aircraft from mid-2017 onwards.
Faster connection speeds are made possible by the nbn Sky Muster satellite service and will enable streaming. This represents a significant upgrade over older satellite technology accessed by most airlines around the world.
Idle data capacity is used, with signal reaching the aircraft as it flies through the satellite's 101 spot beams
Olivia Wirth, executive of brand, marketing and corporate affairs for the Qantas Group, said this free internet will open up a huge range of entertainment options for customers.
She highlighted just how popular email, online shopping and general web browsing is likely to be when it is enabled.
"What a lot of people relish about flying is being able to catch up on their favourite TV shows or watch movies they didn’t get to see at the cinema," Mrs Wirth remarked.
"Foxtel and Netflix both have huge catalogues that are expanding all the time, so there will be no shortage of entertainment on board."
