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Bloomberg is finding a new outlet for video content: airlines.
The company has just struck its latest (and most ambitious) licensing deal with an airline. Bloomberg’s linked with Delta to distribute three different half-hour video series for Delta Studio, the airline’s in-flight streaming video network. The deal includes a Delta-only version of Bloomberg’s business of politics franchise “With All Due Respect,” along with syndicated versions of “Studio 1.0,” a series about women leaders in tech, and “Good Fortunes,” a series about the business of philanthropy.
“We are a non-traditional area of focus for Bloomberg, so building a brand is critical,” said Tanya Singer, gm of politics at Bloomberg. “And so relationships like this one with Delta are good for us — it gets my programming in front of the world very quickly.”
This is not Bloomberg’s first partnership with an airline. Its content distribution division has one sales person devoted to licensing content to airlines. Bloomberg does a daily business update on British Airways and also distributes content on American Airlines, Air Canada, British Airways, United, Qantas and Air Berlin. The Delta partnership is different in that Bloomberg is creating custom video, starting with the initial batch of episodes of “With All Due Respect.”
Delta Studio is the airline’s Netflix in the sky. It’s available for free on seat-back screens and on passengers’ personal computers and mobile devices via an app. The idea is there are a lot of business decision-makers taking flights and looking to kills time.
“This is about extending our brand and finding additional decision-makers out in the market who are core to our success,” said Josh Rucci, global head of Bloomberg Content Service.
Distribution deals such as this Delta partnership are important for Bloomberg because it directly contributes to the bottom line. While much of action in video distribution is on Facebook, there is arguably as much, if not more, potential in licensing video content to various over-the top platforms. In this instance, Delta is paying Bloomberg an undisclosed fee for the content.
Overall, Bloomberg pulls in six figures every year from airlines that license its video content, Rucci said. The company makes “tens of millions” annually by licensing video, photo and text content to various distribution partners, he said.
Image provided by Bloomberg
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