British Airways & BBC Worldwide Sign Inflight Deal

LONDON: A new inflight deal sees programming from BBC Worldwide supplied to British Airways, which will now feature branded channel environments for BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies.

Starting in December, British Airways’ in-flight entertainment service will feature the new channels with programming such as Luther, Celebrity MasterChef and Top Gear. CBeebies will appear as a bespoke channel, hosted by Sid Sloane and Andy Day. This is the first-ever tailored preschool channel for the airline. The lineup will include In the Night Garden, ZingZillas, Charlie and Lola and Penelope K, by the way. These new services join BBC World News, which is already a part of the in-flight entertainment lineup of British Airways.

Ian McDonough, the senior VP and general manager for EMEA at BBC Worldwide Channels, said, “As a company, we are committed to serving our international audiences with the best British content across a range of media platforms. This deal enables viewers to access some of their favorite BBC shows on BA aircraft as well as providing us with a valuable opportunity to extend the reach of our channel brands. The deal forms part of our wider channel strategy to provide content wherever, whenever and however they choose—even when they’re thousands of feet in the air.”