Live Television, Internet, Broadband

Almost everyone of a certain age can remember where he was when he heard that President John Kennedy had been shot in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Many people have the same sort of recollections of the first moonwalk and memories of similar clarity of the moment a favourite sports team won its most dramatic championship.
     In the past, one of the few places all of these almost time-suspending events would have been missed was onboard an airplane in flight. All of that is changing.
     Inflight real time television is now a reality, and its availability will become global because of the combination of recently developed technologies and the use of existing reliable satellite and antenna infrastructure. Once global television service is launched, no one in the global inflight audience need be disconnected from the news and sporting events that shape the world by the minute.
     People are used to getting information and entertainment content all day, every day, everywhere — whether it is news, sports, or internet content.
     The world's appetite for real time information appears to be insatiable. We are all becoming accustomed to being connected and informed whenever we choose to be. Inflight audiences, like all other remote or mobile population groups, need to be serviced by television information, and the airline industry will require the tools and vocabulary necessary to evaluate the inflight television offerings. In the following discussion, some of the most meaningful issues required to deal with real time television inflight will be covered.

Live inflight television content... what is needed?

The first question one needs to ask is what content should be delivered live? Movies and short programming are not live and hence do not require immediate delivery to the aircraft. The only programming that is really live — i.e. taking place "right now" — is sports and news. Hence, real time delivery of news and sports is well suited for satellite distribution to the aircraft. Broadcasting breaking news, as it happens, has tremendous value for the passenger. What will be the change in the flight experience of a passenger who was expecting to miss watching the golf tournament — when he gets to watch every hole, live?
     Other programming such as movies and shorts could be delivered via satellite to the aircraft, but it is simply that delivery to the airplane — a replacement of the tape methodology, and the economics of doing so — that needs to be examined against traditional tape based delivery.
     Once the genre of the content has been decided, it is important to consider whether regional content is required or whether a global content package provides the kind of programming that airline passengers require. Is regional news sufficient for a regional airline? Does the mix of international passengers warrant a more global news programme? Language is another issue that may be important. How will different languages be provided to the passengers simultaneously — audio translation seems to be one option, a selection of multiple television channels another.
     Sports can be quite regional and local sports channels could be seen to be more attractive for regional airlines. However, one needs to remember that typically sports are played in the afternoon and evening, so the content of the channel in the morning needs to be carefully thought out.
     An international carrier, on the other hand, may find it more attractive to provide live coverage of the major events from around the world and focus on coverage of the really popular major sports tournaments. The various vendors have used different approaches to solving this problem. LiveTV focuses on US domestic flights and hence carries ESPN and the Golf Channel that cater to an American audience. AIRIA's sports channel is designed to cover sports as they happen and is custom designed for the global inflight market and targets the major events. Hence Asian and Australian sports are covered first during the day, followed by European sports, and finally by American events.

What control is needed over the content?

Content onboard today is under the complete control of the airline. However, how much control is really necessary? Clearly the content provider needs to be sensitive to the particular needs of the inflight market. A service provider who provides television by receiving signals that are intended for home use is unlikely to have as much control as one that is putting up a signal specifically for the inflight market. AirTV and AIRIA, for example, will have control over their content, whilst others who would access DTH systems will need to exercise that control through the DTH operator who is looking out primarily for the needs of the millions of home viewers.
     IFE today is characterised by an individual airline's look and feel. Broadcast television could be perceived as eroding the individual airline's established brand equity since the same content will now be common to a number of different aircraft and airlines. Whilst the passenger is comfortable with certain "trusted media" (CNN, BBC, etc.), can the service providers provide customised branding and look and feel for the airline? How easily is the branding customised? How often can it be changed? Control over advertising onboard is also important. The inflight environment is carefully controlled, and the airline should be able to exercise a level of control over what is shown to their passengers whilst they are in their care.

Technology and operations

There are three elements of a satellite delivery system: ground based segment, space segment, and airborne segment. The diagram (below) shows a typical system.

What coverage is required? What is available?

The space segment is one area of considerable diversity. In order to make the right decisions, an airline should consider first of all what sort of coverage it requires. There are three broad categories of coverage available: regional, multiregional and global.

REGIONAL

Regional coverage is provided by systems such as DirecTV. These systems are typically Ku-band, have multiple channels, and focus on the Direct-to-Home (DTH) market. Since the primary market for these systems is provision of television to homes, coverage is limited to a particular region — e.g. Continental US (CONUS) or Western Europe, etc. The advantage of such systems is that the satellites are already being used to transmit television signals, and aircraft can receive the same signals whilst they travel in the coverage area of the satellite. This allows a cost effective delivery of multiple channels to the aircraft. A regional or domestic airline may find this one of the more attractive live television options. LiveTV provides a regional service in the US and is being used by JetBlue and Legend.

MULTIREGIONAL

DTH television systems operate in a number of different areas of the world. A multiregional live inflight television system allows an aircraft to access these systems as it flies over their coverage areas. This kind of system should not be confused with a global system. Although a multiregional system may have coverage in a number of different regions all over the world, there are significant gaps in coverage, especially over the oceans where there is no DTH service. Further, systems around the world do not conform to the same standards. Signal formats differ in a number of ways: NTSC vs PAL, frequencies of transmission, encryption systems, power of the satellites, polarisation of the signals, etc. In order to receive the signals from these various systems, the airborne technology needs to be able to work with each of the various standards, leading to more complex antennas and receivers onboard. Multiregional systems do have the advantage of being able to cater for "local content" for the region that the aircraft is flying over. The main disadvantages of a multiregional system are lack of content control and the absence of coverage during the bulk of all transoceanic flights.

GLOBAL

Global systems are able to provide service all over the world. Whilst a multiregional service is still limited to coverage over areas that have DTH television, a global service provides live television onboard anywhere, at any time. The Inmarsat network of satellites operates at L-band and has provided global aeronautical satellite coverage for over ten years. AIRIA is a new joint venture with Inmarsat that uses the Inmarsat satellites to provide global live inflight television. AirTV plans to launch a new satellite network in the S-band. Its coverage will be global, covering the major airline routes. There are other plans to launch Ka and Ku-band satellites to provide global coverage. A global service has the advantage of being available over the oceans and can cover a complete flight rather than simply the two ends.

What is involved in satellite launches?

The resources and the risks in launching new satellites are not to be underestimated. The time required to build satellites, combined with the costs of manufacture, launch, and insurance are not undertaken lightly. A satellite network operator must also have effective plans to deal with launch failures which could lead to the loss of a satellite and hence a significant part of the network, and orbital failures which have the same effect. Typically, spare satellites are built simply to guard against the risk of losing a satellite during launch. The availability of launch vehicles and orbital slots is another area of schedule risk for launching satellites. Whilst AirTV has secured its orbital slots and launch vehicles as a result of its partnerships with Arianespace and Aerospatiale, AIRIA is not dependent on new satellites. Other operators planning to provide global service will need to address these issues in detail.

Airborne antennas

A steerable antenna is required in order to receive the satellite signal onboard. An airline must consider a number of issues when evaluating the antennas for the service: size, weight, location of the antenna, time to install, certification, etc. Ku-band receive-only antennas, whilst relatively new, are in use today on both business jets and on air transport. Two generic types of antennas are being used for Ku-band — mechanically steered and phased array (electronically steered). However, both types are receive-only at this stage. L-band receive and transmit antennas have been used for aero satcoms for over 10 years. AIRIA provides a system that uses the same antenna (Inmarsat Aero H) to provide two channels of television... thus not requiring any new antennas to be installed onboard. S-band antennas are typically larger than both the Ku-band and the L-band antennas, and are not currently flying.
     Technology is moving in this and other content delivery fields at a considerable pace. There is great temptation to sit back and wait for the next new technology to arrive. The key to solving this conundrum, however, is to pick technologies and solutions that are low risk, have demonstrable value, and are designed to both interface with existing systems onboard and be expandable to provide additional services or, at the very least, interface with new technology as it it becomes available.

Business Models

Various business models are appearing in the airline marketplace. All have some combination of the following elements: equipment fees, services fees, advertising, merchandising and other passenger payments, and third party access fees.
     Some of the considerations that an airline should make when looking at the business models are: What costs do the service fees cover? Are they realistic? What is the capital cost of the project? Will the revenues cover the financing costs? (e.g. A project with $1 billion in capital costs requires annual revenues in excess of $150 million simply to cover financing costs.) How many airplanes are required before those revenues are achieved? What is the share of the world's fleet that number equates to? What percentage of the addressable market is the service provider expecting to achieve? How is the addressable market defined?
     Advertising revenues are seen as the key revenue driver in the provision of live television. The airline passenger represents an extremely attractive audience. Demographics and viewing profiles are significantly higher for passengers than viewers in traditional television markets. Thus, there is tremendous potential in driving extra revenues from advertising. However, airline decision makers should push the envelope in examining the assumptions behind the projections of advertising revenue. Are they realistic?
     What is the viewership assumption? Is it realistic vs. the number of channels on board? What are the advertising rates (cost per thousand — CPM/CPT) being assumed? How do they compare to existing CPMs? How will actual viewership be measured and validated?
     Passenger revenue is another potential source of income for the services. This revenue can be in the form of passenger fees for access (although JetBlue has abandoned charging passengers for its live television service), pay-per-view fees for special events, and merchandising. Again, how much passengers will really spend onboard is a matter for considerable evaluation. Serious consideration should be given to contingency plans should passenger revenues be significantly delayed.

Expansion to broadband

As Peter Lemme and John Wade discussed in their article in the 3rd Quarter, 2000, issue of AVION, data connectivity is on the horizon. There are a number of different elements to the provision of data services.

Cached internet content

The first step will be to deliver internet content to a server that is installed onboard the aircraft. The nature of the content will be under the control of the airline, and passenger may access the content through a distribution mechanism onboard — either a connection with their own laptops and the server or a browsing facility on the IFE system itself. The content is to be updated on an appropriate schedule — news sites updated more frequently than destination sites, for example.
     This content could be delivered on the same satellite link that delivers the live television feed.

E-mail services

The system architecture for airborne e-mail services can take on many forms, but in all cases it can be enhanced in timeliness, speed, and size of content/attachments when a larger bandwidth pipeline is provided to the aircraft. The broadband links used for live television, as well as the higher data rates of Aero HSD, will prove to be a significant aid in establishing and advancing e-mail services to the passengers.

Full internet access

Data transmission in both directions, to and from the aircraft, will allow the provision of e-mail and full internet access. This can be achieved by using Inmarsat's new 64kbit/s High Speed Data (HSD) services. The 64kbit/s IPDS service will allow a number of users to share the same connection to access the internet. Another methodology would be to use an asymmetrical link, high speed broadcasts to the aircraft, combined with lower bandwidth transmission from the aircraft.
     The diagram (below) shows the methodology by which the three services — live television, cached internet, and real time internet can be provided.

     A modular design in the satellite receiver technology will allow an airline to integrate the functions of high bandwidth television reception with high speed data transmission to and from the plane, allowing a true broadband solution to be offered to passengers.
     Live television onboard is a practical proposition. Regional services are available today and are actually flying on revenue flights. Global services are not far behind with AIRIA projected to have full global service (including over the oceans) at the end of the third quarter 2001, and AirTV's planned launchings of four satellites progressively from 2003. Each of the systems have different characteristics, different tradeoffs, and different paths to broadband access.
     Hopefully, this article has provided some of the vocabulary, some of the issues, and some of the tools to assist in understanding this new IFE phenomenon.