Delta, YouTube Ink Inflight Entertainment Partnership (Exclusive)

YouTube is taking flight with Delta Air Lines.

The airline, which is celebrating its centenary, has inked a wide-ranging, multiyear partnership with the video platform, a deal that will bring YouTube content to the airline’s seat-back in-flight video displays, free trials of YouTube Premium for Delta Skymiles members and a custom YouTube Music playlist (curated by flight attendants!) when passengers are boarding.

“Think about what Delta is all about, which is providing an amazing experience as they take travelers around the world. And from a YouTube perspective, we’re really focused on bringing the best of the world to our users, through quality content,” says Miguel Quiroga, YouTube’s vp product partnerships, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “So at the end of the day, like that intersection felt really compelling.”

“This was a no-brainer, really. What we knew was that when we looked at what customers enjoyed doing while on board via the Internet, the number one platform they were streaming was YouTube, and so we knew our customers love YouTube, and we knew we wanted to continue to elevate the experience for our customers,” adds Julieta McCurry,Delta’s vp inflight entertainment and connectivity strategy. “So this partnership made a lot of sense — two leaders in each other’s industries, really coming together to be able to create a really awesome experience for customers.”

Passengers will be able to use Delta’s inflight Wifi to access YouTube on their personal devices, of course, but a curated selection of YouTube content will also be added to Delta’s inflight entertainment system, accessible via seatback screens, beginning Sept. 25.

“The opportunity that we had is to be able to allow our customers to discover creators or talent or content that maybe they haven’t yet been able to discover on their own. It is such a vast library, it’s really hard sometimes to understand what’s out there and what might I enjoy,” McCurry says. “We’ll continue to understand and learn from this partnership and optimize right based on on where customers are leaning in and telling us that what they’re enjoying.”

“I think about it as featured content, and we do this, obviously, in partnership with Delta, and we’ll periodically update it,” Quiroga says. “It’s designed for premium and longform content in nature that’s generally widely popular and suited for in-flight viewing. And of course, because of the nature of the WiFi experience on the planes, on your actual device, you’re able to stream all YouTube as well, so it gives you the mix of both.”

In-flight entertainment has emerged as a surprisingly prime piece of real estate for media companies, but while some, like Peacock, may cut deals for exposure to their programming, YouTube isn’t in need of such brand positioning.

“Our point of view is, consumers want to have us wherever they need to be, and being in the air or being a part of this type of relationship, we just think makes a ton of sense for us — there’s always something new to surprise and delight in the YouTube experience as well,” Quiroga says.

Part of that surprise and delight will come in October, when eligible passengers will be able to try out YouTube Premium, an ad-free subscription service, in a two-week free trial. And a custom YouTube Music playlist will welcome passengers on board (there will also be playlists available via the entertainment systems).

McCurry says that the playlist actually came about from an impromptu conversation between a YouTube Music executive and one of Delta’s flight attendants. The YouTube exec mentioned the partnership to the flight attendant on a recent trip, “and the flight attendant used this as an opportunity to connect with her entire crew, and wrote down a whole list of recommendations in terms of what the whole crew believed would be really great music for for our customers to play on board,” she said. “So it also provided really great feedback.”