Virgin America and Virgin Produced Team Up to Offer Mile High Entertainment & Virgin America Debuts New Red Entertainment Line-up for Spring

SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Virgin America, the California-based airline that is reinventing travel, announces new content additions to the airline's award-winning Red™ in-flight entertainment platform for the spring – including a new "Virgin Produced Channel," created via a unique partnership with Virgin Produced.  As of this month, Virgin America flyers across North America will be able to tune in at 35,000 feet to the new television channel which offers fresh, funny and edgy original content by creative juggernauts like: Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Chris Henchy and Judd Apatow ("Funny Or Die"); Ben Stiller ("Red Hour Digital"); Seth Green and Matthew Senreich ("Stoopid Monkey Productions"); and will.i.am.  The Red platform already offers every Virgin America guest a touch-screen entertainment center at their seatback – with 24 television channels, more than 25 on-demand films, a 3,000 song library, videogames, music videos, interactive Google Maps and a seat-to-seat text chat system.  Red is known for both the breadth of its media library and its diverse, unedited content, and Virgin America flyers will now find even more entertainment at their fingertips.  The new Virgin Produced channel offers a range of short and longer form content, including the exclusive featurette debut of the documentary film "Marley," about the life and times of legendary musician Bob Marley – directed by Academy Award- winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald.  The channel also includes unique content blocks like "Mile High with Funny Or Die," featuring comedy shorts from the online laugh house funnyordie.com. 

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090123/VIRGINAMERICALOGO)

"With the largest media library in the skies, Virgin America has become the airline of choice for entertainment fans," said Luanne Calvert, Vice President of Marketing at Virgin America. "The Red platform provides a breadth and quality of content that is unrivaled in the domestic skies, with a special focus on fresh television, film and music content that reflects our Virgin brand roots.  Partnering with Virgin Produced to produce and distribute content for our discerning flyers was a natural choice."

In addition to producing original, exclusive content for the channel, Virgin Produced has partnered with content creators and brands like AEG, VICE, Relativity Media/Rogue, Daily Variety, Barry Katz Entertainment, What's Trending and Steven Schneider ("Paranormal Activity") to provide unique in-flight programming.  The channel's vertical content offerings include:  LIFE (music, travel, lifestyle), LAUGH (comedy) and LOUD (documentary, drama, emerging filmmakers). For more on the channel: http://www.virginamerica.com/vx/channel-11

"Today marks an exciting start to our global plan to expand our newly launched channel into a worldwide network across Virgin's mobile, aviation, health club, finance, retail/lounge and hotel groups.  We share a unified goal with our commonly branded companies to increase positive consumer experiences by offering entertaining content to our 60 million brand fans worldwide," said Virgin Produced Co-Founders, CEO Jason Felts and Chief Creative Officer Justin Berfield.

Virgin America's entertainment content is refreshed regularly and its new movie menu ranges from foreign-language films to Hollywood blockbusters.  The airline's entertainment menu spotlights independent content across mediums – from film, to television and new media.  The airline's spring in-flight entertainment line-up includes:

More than 25 on-demand movies available to every guest via their seatback touch-screen, including:

• "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
• "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol"
• "50/50"
• "Young Adult"
• "Machine Gun Preacher"
• "War Horse"
• "The Muppets"

18 channels of live TV and 6 channels of cached TV, available free to every guest via their seatback touch-screen – including live news and sports.  Channels include:

National live cable news: CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and CNBC

• CBS New York (local)
• NBC New York (local)
• FOX New York (local)
• Comedy Central
• Disney Channel
• Bravo
• E!
• BoingBoingTV
• Current TV
• ESPN 1 and ESPN 2
• San Francisco Giants channel with behind-the-scenes fan content, including highlights from 2012 Spring Training

Known for its inventive use of technology and the size of its media library, the airline's in-flight entertainment platform has been named by the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) as the Best In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) in the Americas and also honored as the Best Single Achievement in IFE.  Virgin America offers a touch-screen seatback monitor that is 25 percent larger than the average domestic coach in-flight entertainment system screen.  The Red platform offers touch-screen and remote control interactivity and a wealth of content and options, including:

• 'Watch': Live satellite TV, cached specialty channels, 25+ on-demand films and premium TV like HBO
• 'Play': A variety of videogames navigated by a Qwerty keyboard handset at every seat
• 'Talk': A seat-to-seat chat feature inside the aircraft, so guests can chat with someone in a nearby seat
• 'Journey': Interactive Google Maps that zoom at eight levels and track the aircraft in-flight
• 'Eat': A first-of-its-kind on-demand menu that allows guests to order what they want, when they want it during a flight
• 'Shop': An on-demand shopping and a Make a Difference section
• 'Listen': A 3,000 track music library and a platform to create playlists in-flight as well as a music video library
• A kid's entertainment platform, with parental control settings

Headquartered in California, Virgin America is a new domestic airline that offers guests attractive fares and a host of innovative features aimed at reinventing air travel.  Virgin America's principle base of operations is San Francisco International Airport's (SFO) sleek and sustainable new Terminal Two (T2) – the first LEED® Gold-certified airport terminal in the U.S.  Known for beautifully-designed planes with WiFi, power outlets and touch-screen entertainment at every seat, Virgin America has swept the travel awards since its 2007 launch, including being named "Best U.S. Airline" in Conde Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards and Travel + Leisure's World's Best Awards.  The airline's new aircraft offer interactive in-flight entertainment systems and power outlets near every seat.  For more: www.virginamerica.com

About Virgin Produced: Virgin Produced serves as the film and television development, packaging and production arm of the Virgin Group.  Led by co-founders, CEO Jason Felts and CCO Justin Berfield, Virgin Produced is breaking old Hollywood models by providing a collaborative environment that embraces talent so they can best create and inspire.  With an equal focus on television and film, Virgin Produced in its inaugural year, gained swift traction on the film front with their multi-year first look deal with Relativity Media, claiming two back to back #1 box-office successes with "Limitless" and "Immortals." Unique only to Virgin Produced, its content is cross-marketed to consumers across the brand's transportation, mobile, health club, hotel, retail, and social media platforms.  Virgin Produced plans to produce 6-8 films over the next two years with upcoming film releases including The Farrelly Bros' "MOVIE 43" and "21 & OVER."

SOURCE Virgin America