After countless Australia-US trips in the last few years, there's nothing better than the thought of improved Wi-Fi on flights. This is something that Netflix is helping airlines with, to improve on-board Wi-Fi.
Netflix is offering their encoding technology that they developed for mobile devices, with airlines across the world in the hopes of building new partnerships. What benefit would there be to the airlines, exactly? Netflix says that streaming high quality video during a flight would reduce airlines' bandwidth-related costs by up to 75%... impressive.
Whichever airlines partner with Netflix would benefit by providing customers with a greatly improved in-flight media experience, especially if they can provide much faster in-flight Wi-Fi for constant connectivity to mobile devices.
The deal works in many ways as it also provides Netflix with another customer base (airlines), and an extended customer base with future Netflix bundles for frequent flyers, as well as getting its encoding technology into a completely different market. Investors would also love this news, as Netflix can only benefit from a deal like this going on.
The thing is, Netflix has done this before, back in 2015 signing with Virgin America for free Wi-Fi on certain flights. Netflix already has plans with Australian airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia, as well as Aeromexico.