System and method for distribution and delivery of media context and other data to aircraft passengers

A method for providing media content to a plurality of aircraft comprising the steps of:

• receiving content from a plurality of content providers;
• said content comprising live television content and other content;
• accessing content distribution criteria including flight destination and flight origin, used to distribute said content to a plurality of aircraft, said aircraft comprising aircraft in flight and grounded aircraft;
• using said content distribution criteria to form a schedule defining the sequence and timing for transmission of selected, digitized portions of said content;
• wherein said digitized portions are identified in accordance with one or more of said content distribution criteria;
• forming a data feed comprising said selected portions of content and sequenced in accordance with said schedule;
• and
• causing said data feed to be transmitted to said plurality of aircraft using one or more satellite up-link facilities.

A method for providing media content to aircraft passengers comprising the steps of:

• receiving on board an aircraft via satellite up-link digitized data scheduled by a content management and distribution system based on content distribution criteria including at least data corresponding to both flight destination and flight origin, comprising live television content, said digitized data comprising information identifying said content;
• accessing said identifying information in said received digitized data;
• accessing on board said aircraft one or more on-board content distribution criteria corresponding to one or more flight parameters used to control the disposition of said received digitized data;
• using said identifying information and said one or more on-board content distribution criteria to determine whether portions of said received digitized data are discarded, stored for subsequent play out to passengers, or played out to passengers substantially upon receipt.

A digital broadcast network for distribution of television and other media content to aircraft comprising:

• one or more operations centers adapted to process live television content and schedule content based on content distribution criteria including at least data corresponding to both flight destination and flight origin, to form a digital broadcast feed, said operations centers coupled to a ground-based communications network;
• one or more satellite up-link facilities, geographically spaced from each other and coupled to said operations centers;
• a plurality of aircraft satellite antenna systems disposed on a corresponding plurality of aircraft and coupled to said satellite up-link facilities via one or more communications satellites;
• and
• a plurality of aircraft content storage and distribution systems, each of said storage and distribution systems coupled to a corresponding satellite antenna system and one or more in-flight entertainment systems on board said aircraft;
• wherein said operations center is adapted to incorporate information into said digital broadcast data feed information used by said plurality of aircraft content storage and distribution systems to control distribution of said content to said in-flight entertainment systems.

A method for providing an advertiser-supported, in-flight entertainment service comprising the steps of:

• acquiring entertainment content from one or more content providers, wherein a portion of said entertainment includes live entertainment;
• providing said content in digitized form to a plurality of member aircraft participating in said service;
• acquiring advertising content from one or more advertisers for said service and providing said advertising content to said member aircraft;
• forming a content play out schedule for scheduling the playout of said entertainment and advertising content to passengers on board said member aircraft;
• wherein one or more portions of said advertising content are selected for insertion into said play out schedule on board said aircraft in accordance with both the destination of and origin of each of said aircraft.