Internet content and technology provider ScreamingMedia has reached a deal with Boeing, the world's largest commercial aircraft maker, to provide passengers with broadband access services, including Internet and email.
"We are licensing our core software, the SiteWare, which will sit on the ground in the Boeing Connexion content center," said ScreamingMedia Chief Executive Kevin Clark in an interview, referring to the new service, named Connexion by Boeing.
He said the deal was the largest content and licensing contract ever for ScreamingMedia, although he did not provide financial terms. Previously, a similar agreement with AT&T, the US long-distance and cable TV giant, had been ScreamingMedia's No. 1 deal.
Boeing is an "important customer" and will bring "meaningful revenue," Clark said without elaborating. "The impact will be within the guidelines we've given investors."
Clark said that ScreamingMedia is "extremely" well funded. The New York-based company ended 2000 with US$98 million on its balance sheet. "We need less than half of that capital to get us to profitability."
The new service will be available for commercial airlines in late 2001 or early 2002, Clark said, although a service is already running in prototype in some business jets. Passengers will pay a fee for the service, but the amount was not detailed.
The first 10 destinations that will feature ScreamingMedia's services while on board Boeing-made aircraft are San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle.
"For example, when a passenger gets on a plane from Los Angeles to New York, he'll get all the information about the weather, where to go, concerts," he said.
Clark said no comparable service exists.
ScreamingMedia has offices in New York, San Francisco, Miami, London, Paris and Sydney and 250 employees worldwide.
