British Airways to get Cruise and Cruz, not Lonely Planet

British Airways passengers will be getting a raft of new programmes included in their in-flight entertainment systems as part of a deal signed with the BBC.

The deal with BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the corporation which handles syndication of programmes around the world, will start in December 2010 and give over 100 hundred, IFE-equipped aircraft in the BA fleet access to the BBC’s top shows.

With BBC World News already running on existing IFE systems, passengers will get content from BBC Knowledge (Top Gear, seen above featuring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz), BBC Lifestyle (Masterchef), BBC Entertainment (Luther) and kids’ shows.

BBC watchers might be wondering, however, why BA and the BBC is not missing a golden opportunity to use the corporation’s travel gem Lonely Planet.

The guidebook publisher, which saw 75% of the business acquired by the BBC in 2007, is due to feature more prominently on the BBC.com global website (the version that carries ads) in the coming months.

The idea is to include travel-related material penned by the BBC’s own reporters but also bring in content from LonelyPlanet.com to help populate the channel.

The most likely material will be in the form of destination guides, travel advice and holiday tips, presumably with other interactive functions elsewhere on the Lonely Planet site such as maps.

But it appears such content will not be streamed as part of the BA deal.

A BBC official confirms there are no plans to include Lonely Planet material, video or otherwise, as part of the agreement – meaning passengers in the sweet spot of wanting to learn more about a destination (ie. on the actual journey) will miss out.

Related posts:

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2. No proposed change to BBC ownership of Lonely Planet
3. Lonely Planet slashes iPad app price in half after just two days