So much and yet so little

Thousands of choices and yet nothing to watch … that’s the experience I often have with the onboard entertainment system when I fly.

There may be a wide choice in terms of the number of shows, but there will only be one, or maybe three, episodes of a programme that I really like.

Surely, if we’ve learnt anything from the meteoric rise of Netflix, it’s that people like to binge view. And what better place to do it when you are confined to an airplane on a long-haul flight?

Airline entertainment systems should offer full seasons — if not many seasons — of popular shows, rather than a small number of episodes that leave you with a cliffhanger and an insatiable feeling.

I know there are rights and other logistics to be worked out, and that can be expensive, but keeping the punters — especially those in uncomfortable economy seats — happy with enough episodes of Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Archer or Gotham to see them from London to Sydney could be the difference between satisfied, probable return customers, and unhappy punters.

Until that happens, you may be better off with an iPad full of your favourite videos and podcasts, a Kindle or — and this is radical — a good book.