Qantas has announced a new partnership with Sky and Foxtel as part of improvements to its inflight entertainment.

The partnership gives Qantas access to an integrated package of news, sport, entertainment and lifestyle programs as well as the Sky News 24/7 news desk.

Sky News will replace the inflight Channel 9 news bulletins from 1 November 2014, with multiple news bulletins provided throughout the day on international and domestic flights. Sky News will also provide its new international Australian news service live to Qantas’ network of lounges overseas. Customers travelling back home will be able to watch the latest news, sport and business updates from Australia.

Qantas will also have access to Foxtels’ library of premium lifestyle, drama, food and entertainment programming plus FOX SPORTS coverage, which will drive a significant increase in the viewing choices on-board.

As part of other improvements, Qantas customers will notice a significant increase in the amount of content offered on board from early August, including almost doubling the number of new-release blockbusters and more virtual box sets of popular TV series. The 100 hours of additional content will be available on most Qantas International and Domestic flights including 77 hours more movie content, 20 hours more TV content and almost doubling the new of new Hollywood releases from six to ten per month.

We know that inflight entertainment is an important part of the customer journey, especially on long-haul flights. These enhancements will give our customers access to a greater range of on-demand content, and we plan to keep improving over the next 12 months.