United Partners With DISH to Bring Live Football to Starlink-Enabled Seatback Screens
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United Airlines has partnered with DISH to bring live college and professional football games to Starlink-enabled seatback screens on more than 220 mainline aircraft, covering up to 700 flights per day. Starting this week, passengers can watch games from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, FS1, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network, and Thursday Night Football on Prime Video through February. United expects nearly 700 mainline aircraft to have Starlink by early next year, bringing live sports to more passengers across its fleet.
United Brings Live Football to Seatback Screens
United will use DISH’s OnStream platform and Starlink to bring live football directly to seatback screens. Passengers can watch games without having to stream them on their own devices.
“Starlink opens a whole new world of features and benefits for our customers, regardless of where they sit on the plane. Now football fans don’t have to schedule their flights around game day,” said United Airlines Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella.
Passengers can watch a game on their seatback screen while using Starlink on another device to follow their fantasy football team, message friends or stream another game. This gives passengers more ways to follow football while they fly, similar to how they might watch at home. Live football gives United another way to use Starlink beyond Wi-Fi. The airline can bring games directly to seatback screens while passengers continue using Starlink on their own devices.
United offers Starlink free to MileagePlus members in every class of service. More than 560 United mainline and United Express aircraft now have Starlink, carrying more than 31 million passengers across 464,000 flights and connecting 14.2 million devices.
“With United, we are helping to rewrite the inflight playbook,” said DISH Executive Vice President, Video Services Amir Ahmed. “Whether you’re sitting on your couch or cruising at 35,000 feet, you should be able to watch your favorite teams play.”
United has already started using Starlink for more live sports. Last month, the airline partnered with ESPN to host a live fantasy football draft from 30,000 feet, with ESPN analyst Tyler Fulghum making his picks during the two-hour broadcast. Earlier this summer, passengers could stream a major international soccer tournament on Starlink-powered domestic flights.
The DISH partnership takes that a step further by bringing live sports directly to seatback screens throughout the football season. It also brings together two areas where United continues to invest: Starlink and seatback entertainment.
United Continues to Expand Its IFE
United continues to expand seatback entertainment across its fleet and plans to equip up to 1,000 aircraft with screens by the end of 2027. The airline is introducing 27-inch 4K OLED seatback screens in premium cabins as part of its ‘United Elevated’ interior and now offers more than 2,500 hours of entertainment, including content from Apple TV, HBO Max, A24, and Spotify.
Research from Panasonic Avionics also shows that passengers use seatback entertainment slightly more on connected aircraft, highlighting how connectivity and seatback screens can work together rather than compete for passengers’ attention.
Starlink gives United more ways to use those screens. In addition to movies and television shows, the airline can bring live programming onboard while passengers continue using the same connection on their own devices. For live sports, passengers can follow games as they happen on the seatback screen without having to use their phone, tablet, or laptop as their main screen.