“It may not be obvious to most, but the reason smaller, narrow body aircrafts like B737s and A320s don’t have fancy in-flight systems is weight and cost,” says Anahita Poonegar of Intertrust Technologies Corporation.
As explained by the BBC in an article that features Intertrust, airlines are moving away from providing built-in inflight entertainment systems to providing programming that can be accessed directly by the passengers mobile devices such phones or iPads. Intertrust is a major player in this shift by providing the DRM technology that secures much of the content of this new generation of in-flight entertainment providers.