Australian airline Qantas has partnered with one of the world’s most successful TV services, HBO, to bring travellers hundreds of hours of hours of entertainment, from Game of Thrones to classic favourites like The Sopranos and Sex and The City.

The airline will now offer 120 hours of HBO drama, comedy and documentary content for customers flying across the Qantas network. Each month the channel will be updated with 20 hours of the US network’s latest shows and movies. The introduction of an HBO channel will coincide with the addition of three new Foxtel channels – Entertainment by Foxtel, National Geographic and Lifestyle by Foxtel – each of which will be updated monthly resulting in a total of 160 hours of fresh content each month.

The investment forms part of a multi-million dollar overhaul of Qantas’ inflight entertainment software and hardware.

“A lot of our customers look forward to making the most of the opportunity for some uninterrupted viewing time on board, and for many it’s a chance to catch up with their favourite shows,” says Qantas’ head of digital and entertainment Jo Boundy. “That’s why we invest heavily in making sure we have fresh content and a wide range of programs to cater for different tastes. Customer satisfaction with inflight entertainment has hit record levels in recent months, and we plan to keep improving the options available with new features that set Qantas apart.”

Programs that will be shown in the coming months include Veep, True Detectives, Vice, Aussie Pickers, Dead End Express, Animals Gone Wild and River Cottage Australia. www.qantas.com.au