LiveTV

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LiveTV is a major provider of airline in-flight entertainment systems. Originally a subsidiary of Thales Group, it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of JetBlue Airways Corporation.

Its main product is in aircraft seat-back satellite television service, XM Satellite Radio, and movie programming. The system also offers live flight trackers, for people to see where they are. Currently, their systems are installed on JetBlue, Frontier, WestJet, ExpressJet Airlines, and AirTran Airways. Virgin Blue is in the process of installing LiveTV on their aircraft. Depending on the region the airline operates in, different satellite television providers are utilized. In the United States service is provided by DirecTV, in Canada service is provided by Bell ExpressVu, and in Australia service is provided by Foxtel and Austar.

The company is one of the "big four" manufacturers of in-flight entertainment systems, along with Panasonic Avionics Corporation, Thales Group, and Rockwell Collins.

On June 9, 2008, Jetblue announced that it will buy Verizon's Airfone service.^[1]

Continental Airlines plans to add LiveTV to all next-generation Boeing 737s and Boeing 757-300s beginning in January 2009.^[2]

[edit] Locations

Live TV recently won a 1 MHz wide block of frequencies in the 800 MHz air-ground telephone auction conducted by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in 2006. This license will allow air-ground-air communications to take place. An affiliate of Aircell was the winner of the larger 3-MHz wide block of frequencies. Plans for utilizing these frequencies had not been announced by mid-2007.