Continental installing live satellite TV on planes

— -- JetBlue and Virgin America offer the TV service for free. Frontier charges $6 to all but premium-fare ticket holders and some members of its frequent-flier club. Continental is charging $6 in coach and letting first-class passengers get the service free.

Delta first offered live TV on its low-fare airline, Song, which was discontinued in 2006. Song's planes were folded into Delta's mainline fleet, and Delta now offers satellite TV on 98 planes on domestic routes.

Continental executives hope the offering will set it apart and attract more passengers.

"I think it does distinguish us," says Jim Compton, Continental's executive vice president of marketing, who says the carrier is offering more satellite channels than its counterparts are. "Having an industry-leading product ... will draw a better customer share to us."

Airlines are scrambling to get passengers in the midst of the economic downturn, and several carriers including United, Delta and American have begun installing Wi-Fi Internet service on their planes with the hope that the high-tech perk will lure customers back into the air.

Satellite TV has been slower to catch on, mostly because of the high cost that comes with retrofitting older planes or installing the technology on new aircraft, say satellite and airline experts.