From ground to cloud: How airlines are raising NPS by keeping entertainment fresh and personalized

In-flight entertainment (IFE) has long been a core part of the passenger experience, but let’s be honest: in today’s always-connected world, waiting weeks for the latest content to show up is just not cutting it. “Static content updates” no longer meet passenger expectations.

Airlines that have modernized their media workflows are now seeing steady increases in Net Promoter Score (NPS) thanks to one simple shift: their entertainment feels as alive as the world outside the aircraft.

By moving to cloud-based, near-live content delivery, they’re able to keep passengers connected to the moments that matter – from breaking news to the latest music videos – while also unlocking serious operational efficiency and new digital revenue.

The shift: From manual content cycles to near-live workflows

Think about the old way: traditional IFE pipelines are notoriously complex and manual. Content is sourced, quality-checked, transcoded, encrypted, and finally uploaded to the aircraft systems. This whole, multi-supplier process can take weeks, sometimes even months.

A cloud-native setup simplifies all of this. In these secure, automated workflows – like those hosted on certified media vaults such as our Content Platform – the stages are streamlined. This architecture is built specifically for high-security and bandwidth-sensitive environments.

With automated ingest, encoding, watermarking, and delivery directly from the cloud to the airline’s content service provider (CSP) or aircraft, updates that once took weeks can now happen within hours.

This enables powerful new use cases:

• Breaking news and near-live sports highlights on board within an hour of airing.
• Incremental library updates instead of massive full refreshes, which dramatically minimizes logistics and data costs.
• Continuous content synchronization between ground servers, airport lounges, and aircraft systems.

The business impact: Happier passengers, lower costs, and new revenue

By aligning the IFE  content strategy with the airline’s data and personalization layer, the in-flight experience becomes more than a cost center – it becomes a revenue-generating touchpoint.

Imagine tailored recommendations: a passenger who watched a short travel documentary mid-flight later receives a lounge-streaming offer or destination-specific experience through the airline’s mobile app. This creates new ancillary revenue opportunities through personalized offers, sponsored content, and in-flight digital engagement.

Secure, certified, and cloud-native

Moving to the cloud means content needs to be handled with studio-level security. Content Platform acts as the secure bridge between the studio cloud and the aircraft.

It functions as a Hollywood-approved media vault, enabling monitored workflows that isolate high-quality assets while still allowing authorized processing, from encoding and DRM-protection to metadata validation and final delivery. By using a zero-trust architecture, it ensures every action – ingest, edit, preview, or delivery – is logged, policy-controlled, and compliant with studio-grade content protection requirements.

That means studios, CSPs, and airlines can collaborate confidently on the same system, without ever exposing raw media.

Award-winning innovation

We were also recognized among The 2025 Streaming Media Europe 51, highlighting our role as a leader shaping and redefining online video in 2025 and driving innovation in secure, cloud-native media workflows. 

Continuous entertainment: From the app to the aircraft and beyond

As airlines integrate connected IFE with other digital channels, the boundaries between ground and air entertainment are dissolving.

Passengers can start watching a show at the gate, continue mid-flight, and resume after landing – all under the airline’s ecosystem.

This vision of “continuous entertainment” is the next competitive frontier. It strengthens brand engagement, opens new monetization channels, and positions the airline as a digital lifestyle platform rather than just a transport provider. Cloud-based workflows are the essential foundation for this future.

The takeaway

For airlines, embracing cloud-native content workflows isn’t just a technical upgrade – it’s a strategic shift. By rethinking the content pipeline through automation, security, and personalization, they can:

1. Deliver fresher, more engaging in-flight experiences.
2. Reduce the cost and complexity of content operations.
3. Unlock new digital revenue streams tied to entertainment.

The result? A seamless, secure, and continuously evolving entertainment experience that keeps passengers delighted – and keeps airlines ahead in the sky-high competition.