Originally Posted by ian001
Technical issues aside, there is also the matter of programming rights.
Showing a live feed of news channels such as CNN, Sky News and Bloomberg shouldn't be too problematic as these channels are already broadcast on an international basis.
The problem is that rights to acquired content and sporting events are granted on a country by country basis so UK TV channels in the main do not have the rights to show the likes of ER, 24 etc and sporting events outside the UK. So even if a deal could be done with the BBC, Channel 4 etc (who in turn would have to deal with PACT etc) to show their own commissioned content, you'd probably have to cut out most, if not all, acquired content.
I would also the question the value to the passenger given that outside of evening primetime there's not much in the way of "must-see" TV on most channels.
FYI - Channel 4 is currently streaming online (save for acquired programming) and the BBC's UK TV channels will be streaming online in the UK very soon. I've seen a test of the BBC streamig and it's very good.
Well sporting content is one thing that people have expressed an interest in, I know from my many travels to football grounds across the country that some people, book holidays/flights around their teams fixtures. Crazy isn't it
Personally I'd pay to watch the match that I'm missing because I'm in the air at that time, and have been known to get straight off the plane and once landside find the nearest phone and call to get the result. Sporting rights could be sold as an extra area, a bit like region 8 DVD's, which would be another revenue stream for the rights holders.
That having been said, yes there is also a copyright issue for stuff, and that is why the US/North America is perfectly suited for this, and Europe/the rest of the World isn't. However satellite was considered for IFE distribution, but I don't know how far the investigations into it went, I/the company stopped doing IFE content, so lost touch. I believe that this was to be a dedicated service, not just a rebroadcast of existing services, which probably would have meant seperate licenses, but that's not much difference to the current situation.