Originally Posted by
catocony
I very much disagree with you there. A dropdown screen every 4 rows or so that's actually playing a movie or Anthony Bourdain or Big Bang Theory or whatever is far, far less intrusive than 150 screens in the seatbacks playing a very short loop of ads for six hours straight.
Sure, this is a matter of opinion. Me - i read a good old fashioned paper book. I spend my days in an office staring at a screen - don't need to do the same when I'm on a plane.
Originally Posted by
catocony
I very much disagree with you there. A dropdown screen every 4 rows or so that's actually playing a movie or Anthony Bourdain or Big Bang Theory or whatever is far, far less intrusive than 150 screens in the seatbacks playing a very short loop of ads for six hours straight. I can dim my screen, I may be able to ask the person next to me to dim theirs if they're not watching it, but I can't do it to the passengers in the other 22 seats that are generally in my visual range.
And this whole crap about bring your own device. Here's some news for you - not everyone owns a tablet. Sure, most people at least have a smart phone, but watching a movie for $6.99 (cost of on-board wi-fi) on a three-inch screen isn't really entertaining.
There's something of a fallacy here. On one hand you are suggesting that few people pay to watch DirectTv on pmCO planes ("150 screens in the seatbacks playing a very short loop of ads for six hours straight"). On the other you're arguing that it's "crap" to make people pay for IFE on their own device that they may not have.
Well
if no-one's paying for IFE in the first place on pmCO 737 seatback screens, why does it matter if pmUA Airbi becomes on your-own device only? They're still not gonna pay for it - whether they have a device or not. In other words it doesn't matter if the pax doesn't have a tablet - if willingness to pay for the content is zero.*
(* Note: this is different of course from a discussion about whether the IFE in-general should be free or for-pay. Or why UA seems intent on maintaining such a disparity in IFE product across the fleet..)
Actually: continuing this line of reasoning suggests that on balance the removal of drop down screens, combined with no seatback screens, and for for pay-IFE requiring your own device, should result in overall less intrusive light pollution in the cabin from other passengers' entertainment.