United Airlines Switches From Sirius XM to Microsoft’s Zune For In Flight Entertainment.
In an interesting move United Airlines has opted to utilize Microsoft’s Zune to entertain flyers. Up until the end of May the air carrier used Sirius XM. The contract with satellite radio was not renewed.
Zune, which has had trouble gaining penetration into the market, is likely using the deal to gain exposure much like satellite radio did a few years back.
The deals with airlines do expose travelers to services, but the effectiveness of such deals is difficult to measure. Sirius XM is still the music entertainment provider on Jet Blue.
Didn’t united just get bought or do they still lose luggage?
Spencer,
Yup, posted about this over at The Playground yesterday. You mention “In an interesting move United Airlines has opted to utilize Microsoft’s Zune to entertain flyers”. Do you know for sure that it was UA that “opted” to drop SiriusXM, or was it really SiriusXM that opted out of being on UA? Would appreciate any facts you could supply.
Mike…I did not go into who dropped who. UA opted to partner With Zines. It is not a huge deal because it did not add revenue, and is actually not a good representation of the product. Too few channels, and poor sons quality from cheap headphones. Details on the deal have not been disclosed
You are right, you didn’t, but the connotation of the writing, in my opinion, puts a slightly negative spin towards SiriusXM. Not really deserving of a headline without some more facts.
Would be nice to know if SiriusXM decided they got all the product recognition they needed out of the relationship and decided to not renew the contract as a cost saving to SiriusXM (If that is what happened).
See? Different Headline:
Sirius XM Continues To Enhance Cost Savings by Dropping Sirius XM Content On United Airlines
By the Spence.. good work on all the articles and shows of late.. much appreciated!
Air Tran has Xm too. It made my flight so much better.