Good news for sports fans: Lufthansa’s in-flight entertainment service now includes a first integrated live TV channel: Sports 24. The signal is transmitted directly on board by satellite via Lufthansa’s FlyNet broadband Internet service and from there to the entertainment system. Unlike the Internet, this service, which is already available on three recently delivered Airbus A330s, is free of charge for passengers.
Sports 24 has special airline rights for all major sports events such as the UEFA European Football Championship (opening match, all German matches, finals) and the Olympic Games in London. The English-language channel will also broadcast Bundesliga (as of the 2012/13 season) and Premier League matches, all Formula-1 races, the NFL Superbowl, tennis with Wimbledon and the French Open, and golf with the Ryder Cup and US Open.
In addition, Lufthansa is investing in cutting-edge hardware for in-flight entertainment and will equip its long-haul fleet with the Rave system by the California-based producer The IMS Company. As of next spring, passengers on board B 747-400s, A340-600s, A340-300s and A330-300s will successively be able to use the system with the familiar ease of a tablet. They can navigate simply by stroking or wiping a touch screen (Economy Class) or by using a remote control with so-called one-finger navigation in First and Business Class. Image resolution is higher than that of the existing solutions and the system reacts much faster to user input. As all the programme content is stored in each seat display unit, it can even be used without connection to the server.
