Delta Air Lines is expanding its in-flight entertainment options with help from YouTube. A partnership between the two companies will bring a curated selection of YouTube content to Delta’s seatback screens beginning on September 25.
The deal between Delta and YouTube was first teased at the CES trade show in January. Nine months later, Delta is making good on its promise to provide flyers with a wide range of YouTube favorites. Delta Skymiles members will also be able to claim complimentary trials for the ad-free YouTube Premium service, and the airline’s flight attendants will put together YouTube Music playlists that will play while passengers take their seats.
The concept of in-flight content culled from the streaming world is nearly as old as YouTube itself. Virgin America began offering web-native fare on its seatback screens in 2007, and it upped the ante in 2013 when it premiered a new in-flight safety video choreographed by YouTube star Todrick Hall.
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Delta’s initial response to that viral hit was a memetic PSA of its own, which it dubbed “The Internetest Safety Video on the Internet.” But as airlines transitioned from on-demand entertainment to wifi-enabled flights (which, in theory, allow passengers to watch whatever they want), the concept of creator content at 35,000 feet was relegated to the back burner.
Flash forward a decade, and on-demand entertainment in vehicles is all the rage, as evidenced by the numerous automakers who have added apps like TikTok and Twitch to their central consoles. Meanwhile, Delta’s data shows that passengers who use the inflight wifi often turn to YouTube. Delta VP of Inflight Entertainment and Connectivity Strategy Julieta McCurry told The Hollywod Reporter that YouTube is “the number one platform” streamed by the airline’s customers.
“Think about what Delta is all about, which is providing an amazing experience as they take travelers around the world. And from a YouTube perspective, we’re really focused on bringing the best of the world to our users, through quality content,” added YouTube VP of Product Partnership Miguel Quiroga. “So at the end of the day, like that intersection felt really compelling.”
YouTube and Delta didn’t announce the specific videos that will be available on the curated seatback playlists, but the hub seems like an ideal distribution point for the long-form videos YouTube is promoting alongside its continued investment in Shorts. Airplane passengers represent one of the last true captive audiences in the media landscape, and if there’s an appetite for inflight movies, then long-form YouTube videos can certainly carve out a niche as well.
If you ask me, Jet Lag seems like a perfect choice for airplane viewership. Real Engineering videos could also help flyers understand the mechanics that keep them aloft. OK, maybe I just want a hub of Nebula videos on my seatback screen. Without that, I’ll have to look to the row ahead of me and watch whichever YouTube videos that passenger has queued up.
