Anuvu to Provide IFE for Three New Airline Clients
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Anuvu has announced new contracts with Alaska Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and TUI Airways that will see the content service provider (CSP) curating in-flight entertainment (IFE) content across a total of around 450 new aircraft as a result.
Last month, Anuvu began providing all Ethiopian Airlines aircraft equipped with IFE – 39 wide-bodies with AVOD and 27 narrow-bodies with a mix of AVOD and wireless IFE – with entertainment services spanning an impressive 600 movies and TV shows. The selection includes both Hollywood and international content spanning Asian, Latin American, Turkish, European, and of course African and Ethiopian movies, TV and audio.
As Alaska’s new CSP, Anuvu will provide the carrier with a custom line-up of movies and TV shows onboard its fleet of approximately 300 aircraft, which consists of Boeing 737s and Embraer ERJ-170s, as well as assisting in brokering industry-leading licensing partnerships.
“Our media business has been growing 25 percent year-on-year”
Estibaliz Asiain, Anuvu
Leveraging Anuvu’s cloud-based, fully automated supply chain, Open, Alaska will benefit from digitized content delivery processes to more quickly provide passengers access to fresh and diverse content for a broad spectrum of tastes and preferences.
Furthermore, the company will deliver a package of over 400 hours of movies and TV alongside games and audio content for TUI Airways. To help the leisure carrier make accurate content-related decisions, Anuvu will utilize its 360 data suite to program the airline’s entertainment based on individual passenger preferences.
During a catch up at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Anuvu’s EVP Media & Content Estibaliz Asiain told APEX Insights, “We’re seeing a little bit of supplier fatigue in the market in general, so there’s been a lot RFPs coming out, especially from airlines that have been a bit dormant post-pandemic that suddenly want to boost their IFE.
“This is the case with Ethiopian. They want to have an IFE experience that’s similar to a tier one airline, so I would say this deal is not just about volume, it’s about content curation that’s very specific to their passengers.”
Regarding TUI, Asiain commented, “They have been with a smaller CSP for many, many years and they wanted to do something different, something special. They want a lot of promotion around their content so passengers are aware of the investments the airline is making on their behalf.
“With Alaska, they already have a really strong IFE offering,” Asiain continued. “For them, I think [what makes us attractive,] it’s our investments in technology, in innovation.”
“Hollywood content is still the primary thing that people want to watch,”
Estibaliz Asiain, Anuvu
She went on to confirm that Anuvu has also locked in two further undisclosed customers so far this year. These latest deals come off the back of a very successful 2023 for the business, which saw the company score new contracts with the likes of Etihad Airways, Air China and China Airlines.
“Our media business has been growing 25 percent year-on-year,” she said. “Part of the growth is from new customers, and some comes from customers recovering completely from the pandemic.” Asiain went on to predict that Anuvu will see even bigger growth throughout 2024.
In terms of ongoing content trends, Asiain opined, “Hollywood content is still the primary thing that people want to watch, especially on seatback [systems], but post-pandemic we’re seeing a growth in demand for native digital content, short form content and international content because of streaming platforms and how they’ve changed passengers’ behaviors at home.”
These types of trends are something Anuvu continues to monitor thanks to a recent partnership with Parrot Analytics.