NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - July 09, 2015) - JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) today announced a new partnership with MLBAM, the interactive media and internet company of Major League Baseball, that will give JetBlue customers free in-flight access to MLB.TV - the #1 live streaming sports service - on their laptops and supported smartphones and tablets through the MLB.com At Bat mobile app. The agreement brings free, Internet streaming of live Regular Season baseball games 35,000 feet in the sky for the first time ever, and adds to JetBlue's expanding catalog of onboard entertainment delivered over Fly-Fi, the industry's fastest complimentary broadband Internet.
All JetBlue customers traveling in the contiguous United States on Fly-Fi equipped aircraft will have complimentary access to MLB.TV, which offers more than 2,500 live and archived games on demand per season. While MLB.TV typically requires a subscription, JetBlue customers will receive free access while in flight through "The Hub," JetBlue's Fly-Fi content portal. For the first time ever, customers using Fly-Fi Hub can catch any Regular Season game being played by any of MLB's 30 teams at any time.
"Launching MLB.TV is a home run for our customers who are getting more free entertainment than ever included in their JetBlue flights," said Jamie Perry, vice president brand and product development. "Whether it's sports, movies, television, music, news or e-books, we're offering endless entertainment options across multiple screens that goes far away from the drop-down televisions of yesterday that many airlines still serve to customers."
With speeds up to 20 mbps per device, Fly-Fi offers a true Internet streaming experience that no other U.S. carrier is capable of providing. MLB.TV becomes the first live sports property to join JetBlue's robust list of leading brands offering content on JetBlue flights including Amazon Prime streaming entertainment (coming soon), The Wall Street Journal, PBS, NatGeo, Vice, Harper Collins and Time, Inc. among others.
"With free in-flight access to MLB.TV on their personal devices, JetBlue customers will now be able to watch live MLB games while traveling," said Kenny Gersh, EVP, Business, MLBAM. "It's this type of innovative partnership with an innovative airline in JetBlue that symbolizes our constant drive to expand distribution of games, giving our fans access to live baseball in new ways. This is perfect match partnership baseball fans will love."
Unlike other carriers that charge sky high prices for Wi-fi, JetBlue is keeping Fly-Fi free for all customers. Fly-Fi Hub content complements JetBlue's signature seatback entertainment featuring live DIRECTV® programming and 100+ channels of SiriusXM® radio on every aircraft. JetBlue airs more channels of free sports on-board than any other domestic airline. The line-up includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, NBC Sports, Fox Sports 1 and NFL Network.
Since launching free Fly-Fi broadband Internet in 2013, JetBlue has quickly positioned itself as the leader in inflight entertainment among U.S. airlines.
About JetBlue Airways
JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline™, and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. JetBlue carries more than 32 million customers a year to 90 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of 875 daily flights.
About MLBAM
Established in June 2000 following a unanimous vote by the 30 Major League Baseball club owners to centralize all of Baseball's Internet operations, MLB Advanced Media LP (MLBAM) is the interactive media and internet company of Major League Baseball. MLBAM manages the official league site, MLB.com, and each of the 30 individual Club sites to create the most comprehensive Major League Baseball resource on the Internet. MLBAM also develops, deploys and distributes the highest-grossing sports app, At Bat, as well as manages live video content for dozens of sports, news and entertainment clients. It captures, encodes and distributes tens of thousands of live video events annually, powering more live events on the Internet than any other property in the world.