United Teams Up with DISH to Bring Live Football Onboard

United Airlines customers won't miss a play this football season, thanks to a new deal with DISH. Starting this week, travelers can catch live professional and college football games right on their Starlink-enabled seatback screen.

Starlink is the fastest, most reliable Wi-Fi in the sky and United is installing Starlink at a rapid rate - and, fans can now watch live broadcasts from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, FS1, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network and TNF on Prime Video on more than 200 Starlink-equipped airplanes – about 700 of flights per day.

The service will be available on domestic flights through the big game in February, and United expects to have Starlink on nearly 700 airplanes by then.

Starlink is free for MileagePlus members in every class of service, and the airline expects to complete installations before the end of 2027.

This new entertainment offering builds on the airline's long history of supporting professional football, sponsoring nine professional football teams in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Washington D.C., Denver, Kansas City, Cleveland and Nashville and operating more than 200 team charter flights for 11 teams this season.

United's new agreement represents a collaborative effort with DISH, utilizing its OnStream platform, to deliver content to next-generation aviation environments.

Starlink Sets a New Standard for Live Entertainment in Flight

This new service is just the latest example of how United is using Starlink to redefine the inflight entertainment experience. Last month, United partnered with ESPN to host a first-of-its kind live Fantasy Football Draft from 30,000 feet where ESPN analyst Tyler Fulghum made his picks live from the sky during the two-hour broadcast.

And earlier this summer, United customers could stream the biggest soccer tournament in the world onboard Starlink-powered domestic flights.

Starlink is now active on more than 560 United mainline and United Express® aircraft and the airline has already flown more than 31 million passengers on Starlink-powered aircraft across more than 464,000 flights, powering 14.2 million devices.

Starlink is just one way United is investing nose to tail in its customer experience. The airline continues to install seatback screens across its fleet – up to 1,000 aircraft before the end of 2027 – and is rolling out new airplanes with 27-inch, 4K OLED seatback screens, the largest among U.S. carriers.

Passengers can now access more than 2,500 hours of premium entertainment content including Apple TV, HBO Max, A24 and Spotify.