United Airlines and DIRECTV Team Up to Stream Live TV – Including Live Sports – on Starlink-Enabled Seatback Screens This Summer

Airline offers streaming seatback experience through July 20 on as many as 150 Starlink-enabled aircraft thanks to the world’s fastest, most reliable inflight Wi-Fi service.

Live TV streaming content from DIRECTV IN FLIGHT includes free access to more than a dozen channels, including FOX, Fox Sports 1, Apple F1, ABC, ESPN, TNT, CBS, NBC, TBS and BBC, featuring live soccer, news, weather, business and entertainment.

United Airlines and DIRECTV are teaming up to enable passengers to watch live streaming TV on Starlink-enabled, United seatback screens through July 20, which will allow soccer fans to catch all the action from the summer’s biggest sports tournament through the last match on as many as 150 Starlink-enabled aircraft thanks to the world’s fastest, most reliable inflight Wi-Fi service.

Through DIRECTV and BBC, United customers on these aircraft have free access to more than a dozen live TV channels, including FOX, Fox Sports 1, Apple F1, ABC, ESPN, TNT, CNN, CBS, NBC, TBS and BBC News, offering live soccer, sports, news, weather, business and entertainment.

In 2024, United set a new standard of inflight connectivity by signing the industry’s largest agreement of its kind with SpaceX to bring Starlink’s fast, reliable Wi-Fi service to the airline’s mainline and regional aircraft fleet, for free for MileagePlus^® members. Today, Starlink is active on more than 400 United mainline and United Express^® aircraft, and the carrier expects to outfit its entire fleet before the end of 2027.

“United is adding Starlink to more aircraft than any other airline in the world and teaming up with DIRECTV is a way for us to give customers a glimpse into the future of inflight entertainment with live sports and do it during one of the world’s most popular sporting events,” said Andrew Nocella, United’s Chief Commercial Officer. “Our journey started nearly a decade ago with a decision to install screens in every seat. We already have more than 160,000 screens across our fleet, with plans to basically double that number soon via new deliveries and retrofits. But just having static screens with On Demand content was never our end game. The real customer benefit happens when those screens are dynamic and offer real-time, streaming content just like your phone. That’s where the combination of Starlink’s reliable and fast connectivity and DIRECTV IN FLIGHT live TV is a game-changer.”

This initiative uses the “Viasat Live TV” and “Thales 360” web-enabled applications to tap into live TV content and present it to customer’s seatback screens; streamed to the aircraft using Starlink connectivity.