Service provider Stellar Inflight is close to reaching an agreement with one of the six major motion picture studios to offer content on iPads being introduced by Australian low cost carrier JetStar.
Stellar worked with Jetstar in an advisory capacity in evaluating its IFE options, and ultimately the carrier settled on the iPad. Jetstar was the first carrier to unveil plans to trial an in-flight entertainment system based in the iPad, and conducted tests during a two week period in June. Now the carrier is planning to begin roll-out of the off the shelf technology on 55 aircraft next month.
Stellar has submitted a custom security solution to the studios for testing and early content approval, says chief operating officer of Stellar Micheal Reilly. He expects an agreement with the first studio should be reached soon. The pace of negotiations with the studios varies, he explains, as some simply require a white paper on using the iPad in in-flight entertainment while others want to test the device to ensure movies won't be pirated.
The business models Stellar is negotiating on behalf of Jetstar are revenue sharing or a pay for access architecture.
Jetstar has not revealed how many iPads it plans to allocate for each aircraft. But Reilly says based on the popularity of the trials the "allocation has substantially increased."
Source: Flight Daily News
