JetBlue to offer free live streaming of Major League Baseball games

JetBlue Airways (New York) on the heals of the Virgin America Wi-Fi announcement, has responded with this announcement in the on-going “Wi-Fi Wars”:

JetBlue today announced a new partnership with MLBAM, the interactive media and internet company of Major League Baseball, that will give JetBlue customers free in-flight access to MLB.TV – the #1 live streaming sports service – on their laptops and supported smartphones and tablets through the MLB.com At Bat mobile app. The agreement brings free, Internet streaming of live Regular Season baseball games 35,000 feet in the sky for the first time ever, and adds to JetBlue’s expanding catalog of onboard entertainment delivered over Fly-Fi, the industry’s fastest complimentary broadband Internet.

The airline continues;

All JetBlue customers traveling in the contiguous United States on Fly-Fi equipped aircraft will have complimentary access to MLB.TV, which offers more than 2,500 live and archived games on demand per season. While MLB.TV typically requires a subscription, JetBlue customers will receive free access while in flight through “The Hub,” JetBlue’s Fly-Fi content portal. For the first time ever, customers using Fly-Fi Hub can catch any Regular Season game being played by any of MLB’s 30 teams at any time.

According to the airline, “With speeds up to 20 mbps per device, Fly-Fi offers a true Internet streaming experience that no other U.S. carrier is capable of providing. MLB.TV becomes the first live sports property to join JetBlue’s robust list of leading brands offering content on JetBlue flights including Amazon Prime streaming entertainment (coming soon), The Wall Street Journal, PBS, NatGeo, Vice, Harper Collins and Time, Inc. among others.”

Unlike other carriers that charge sky high prices for Wi-fi, JetBlue is keeping Fly-Fi free for all customers. Fly-Fi Hub content complements JetBlue’s signature seatback entertainment featuring live DIRECTV® programming and 100+ channels of SiriusXM® radio on every aircraft. JetBlue airs more channels of free sports on-board than any other domestic airline. The line-up includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, NBC Sports, Fox Sports 1 and NFL Network.