• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, July 13, 2009

Continental Airlines has become the first major carrier to offer live in-flight television, carrying more than double the channels of rivals that carry DirecTV beamed in at 30,000 feet. The Continental service has 77 channels, including three broadcast networks.

JetBlue has offered in-flight DirecTV since 2000, while Frontier reached an agreement to offer the service in 2002. (It is also available on Air Force One.)

Delta's Song Airlines -- a JetBlue competitor -- offered live TV from Dish Network. But the carrier went belly up in 2006. Virgin America, which launched in 2007, provides in-flight TV from Dish. JetBlue started with 24 channels nine years ago and is now up to 36. Frontier is at 24.

Continental joins the list of live-TV carriers as airlines are increasingly adding in-flight Wi-Fi service for a fee, notably American Airlines.

The DirecTV service is available to customers individually on seat backs, allowing each his or her own screen and remote control. Continental will charge $6 in economy class for the DirecTV service, and make it available free to first-class customers. Frontier also charges $6 for the service, though makes it free for travelers in premium classes. It is gratis on JetBlue.

All three airlines offer CBS, NBC and Fox -- making events such as the World Series and March Madness available in the air. But ABC is not available and apparently has no deal with either DirecTV or LiveTV, acquired by JetBlue for $41 million in 2002 and the provider of the backbone for in-flight entertainment services.

Since DirecTV is only offered in the continental U.S. and Hawaii, Continental, which is the world's fifth-largest airline by one measure, will only be able to offer it on domestic flights.

Cable networks available on all three carriers include Discovery, CNN and ESPN. (ESPN has the same corporate parent, Disney, as ABC.)