American Airlines has begun offering free live TV on select
domestic flights.
The service went live Wednesday on all 48 of the airline's
Airbus A320s and on more than 60 of American's Airbus A319s.
Flyers on those aircraft can enjoy live programming from
Bravo, CBS, CNBC, CNN, Disney Channel, ESPN, Fox, NBC, NFL Network, Telemundo,
TNT and USA. Passengers can stream those channels to their laptops, tablets or
phones. The service won’t be available
via seatback entertainment screens, which American is gradually phasing out of
its domestic fleet.
The airline said it will extend live TV across its domestic
narrowbody fleet of more than 700 aircraft during 2019.
With the move, American joins JetBlue, Southwest and select
Delta domestic flights in offering live TV.
In addition, American is the only U.S. airline to offer live
TV on international flights. The carrier’s international widebodies offer five
channels, mostly via seatback screens.