Qantas brings binge watching and bigger screens to the skies

Qantas has conducted a major overhaul of its in-flight entertainment experience just in time for the summer holidays, launching a rebooted Q Entertainment system across its domestic and international services.

Passengers will see a number of new features roll out as part of the change, including new screen hardware, 100 hours of new content, a new 1-5 passenger star rating system, "intuitive movie recommendations" and a new playlist feature that allows you to plan your viewing for the whole journey.

The updated system began rolling out this month, with the full deployment expected to be complete by December.

According to Qantas, the new Q Entertainment system is designed to offer the same kind of viewing experience passengers would get on the ground, including Sky News bulletins available throughout the flight and the ability to binge-watch TV shows.

"This means multiple, daily news updates seven days a week, 100 hours more TV and movie content, 160 hours of box set viewing, triple the number of new release albums and double the number of blockbusters," said Olive Wirth, Qantas Group executive of brand marketing and corporate affairs.

International economy flyers will be upgraded from the old 6.4-inch screens to 11-inch Panasonic HD interactive touch screens, domestic economy will feature 9-inch Panasonic touchscreens or iPads with Q streaming, and business class passengers on both domestic and international flights will now have 16-inch Panasonic HD touchscreens.

The airline is also starting to roll out its Q Streaming content streaming service for BYO devices as part of the in-flight overhaul.

The Q Entertainment software has also had an upgrade, with an interactive swipe interface, the ability to sort movies by categories such as Critics' Top 20 and Passenger Top 20, and duty-free shopping via the touchscreen on international flights.