United Airlines to offer live American football inflight
Starting this week, travellers can catch live professional and college football games right on their Starlink-enabled seatback screen.
United is installing Starlink at a rapid rate – and, fans can now watch live broadcasts from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, FS1, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network and TNF on Prime Video on more than 200 Starlink-equipped airplanes – about 700 of flights per day.
The service will be available on domestic flights through the Super Bowl in February, and United expects to have Starlink on nearly 700 airplanes by then.
Starlink is free for MileagePlus members in every class of service, and the airline expects to complete installations before the end of 2027.
This new entertainment offering builds on the airline’s long history of supporting professional football, sponsoring nine professional football teams in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Washington D.C., Denver, Kansas City, Cleveland and Nashville and operating more than 200 team charter flights for 11 teams this season.
“Starlink opens a whole new world of features and benefits for our customers, regardless of where they sit on the plane – now football fans don’t have to schedule their flights around game day,” said United’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Andrew Nocella.
“Instead, they can watch their favourite team on seatback and also make changes to their fantasy roster, text or live chat with friends, or even stream different games on their phone, laptop or tablet, just like they would do at home.”
United’s new agreement represents a collaborative effort with DISH, utilizing its OnStream platform, to deliver content to next-generation aviation environments.
Starlink is now active on more than 560 United mainline and United Express aircraft and the airline has already flown more than 31 million passengers on Starlink-powered aircraft across more than 464,000 flights, powering 14.2 million devices.