Alaska Airlines is adding live sports programming to its inflight entertainment feed. The carrier partnered with Fox Sports to bring BIG NOON SATURDAY to its fleet, allowing passengers to catch college football each Saturday this fall.
This partnership represents an exciting opportunity to expand our in-flight entertainment options, while giving guests the chance to follow their favorite teams on the move.
– Eric Edge, Managing Director of Marketing and Advertising, Alaska Airlines
The content will stream to passenger devices, just like other entertainment on board. It will also be free; travelers won’t have to buy a Wi-Fi package to watch the game. But the offering also comes with some limitations.
Alaska Airlines will make the stream available from 11a-4p eastern time each Saturday during the season. Fox Sports Big Noon Kickoff show typically starts at 10a each week, and occasionally at 9a. If passengers want to catch the full show they’ll have to pay up for a streaming pass.
Also, it will only be available on planes with Intelsat‘s 2Ku satellite-based connectivity. That’s only the mainline fleet for now, though the E175s are due for an upgrade starting this year.
The renderings of the inflight experience do not show how passengers will access the content, but presumably it will be prominent in the capture portal during the times it is available.
Enabling a particular streaming service on board, without payment required, is not a new concept for airlines and inflight connectivity service providers. This is, however, the first example I can think of where it is tied to such a limited time slot and specific schedule.
For those flying in the weeks ahead, Fox Sports has confirmed the first three games that will be broadcast for Big Noon Saturday:
- Penn State at West Virginia on Saturday, Aug. 31
- Texas at Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, Sept. 7
- Alabama at Wisconsin on Saturday, Sept. 14
Additional games will be announced as the season progresses. The final week of the season will feature Michigan at Ohio State on Saturday, Nov. 30.
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