MAM
Emirates in-flight entertainment voted best in the world
MUMBAI: Emirates Airline has won the coveted World’s Best Airline In-flight Entertainment award 2005 in the latest World Airline Awards, announced recently by Skytrax Research of London.
The award was based on the annual Airline In-flight Entertainment (IFE) Survey conducted by Skytrax between June 2004 and May 2005 that included more than one million survey responses from over 85 different nationalities.
The IFE poll was part of the world’s largest airline passenger survey, received a grand total of more than 12 million responses. Emirates was also declared first in the ‘Best Airlines – Middle East’ and ‘Best Regional Airline – Middle East and Africa’ categories. It stood second in ‘Best Economy Class (intercontinental)’ and received the ‘Airline of the Year Bronze Award’.
The IFE survey measured each airline’s in-flight entertainment on different aspects of passenger satisfaction – overall quality; selection of movies including choice of languages; video and audio programmes, games and other interactive options; and the quality of headsets.
Commenting on the results, Skytrax director marketing Peter Miller, said, “The whole concept of in-flight entertainment has changed so dramatically in the last ten years, and the relative importance of In-flight Entertainment to passengers continues to grow. Choice is paramount, and in the past couple of years it has become more focussed on giving the customer control.”
“We congratulate Emirates on winning the 2005 Best Airline In-flight Entertainment Award, particularly in the heat of stiff competition from several other major airlines. This sector of an airline’s product is now reflective of a dedication to providing customers the very best quality travel experience, and Emirates continues to set new benchmarks for the industry to match,” he added.
Emirates vice president passenger communications and visual services Patrick Brannelly said, “We are extremely gratified by this award as it is an affirmation of what we have always strived for – to offer the best IFE in the business. We would like to thank Skytrax and our passengers, who not only enjoyed our in-flight entertainment but also went the extra mile to vote for us.”
“Ever since Emirates was the first airline in the world to offer a personal TV in all three classes – way back in 1992, it has been committed to offering the very best movies, TV and audio programmes and games. Today, Emirates typical investment in in-flight entertainment systems equates to nearly $10 million per aircraft,” he added.
Emirates continues to enhance the in-flight entertainment offering, as it does in every aspect of its operations. In December 2003, Emirates was the first airline in the world to broadcast live BBC news headlines to its fleet of aircraft – with regular updates transmitted during the flight. Wi-Fi connectivity on the Airbus A340-500 was launched in May 2004, allowing passengers with Wi-Fi equipped laptops to check their email during the flight.
The latest in-flight entertainment system, called ‘Ice’ (Information, Communications and Entertainment) features over 500 channels of entertainment all controllable by the passenger on-demand. Having met with very positive passenger reaction, ‘Ice’ is already installed on over 20 per cent of the fleet, and will be extended to all future aircraft.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
