Much-Needed TV Startup Will Make Waiting At The Airport A Little Less Terrible

Airports have taken a "hurry up and wait" mentality when it comes to travel. Vacationers rush through crowded terminals and go through the mandatory security procedures only to find themselves with hours left to spend before the flight actually takes off. But if travelers cut it too close, they run the risk of missing the flight, so it's a pretty vicious cycle. The ReachMe.TV startup for airports is looking to make sure flyers have something to do with all that time on their hands, rather than peruse the gift shops for things they don't need.

The in-airport mobile entertainment network is putting a new spin on news, sports, and documentaries with six to 12-minute segments, perfect for the traveler on the go who might want to sit and watch a whole episode of a show but can't quite commit in a distracting waiting area.

"We took the same programming zeitgeist that the major networks use, but broke the format barrier: the length of content," Ron Bloom, co-founder of the company told Business Insider. "Let's not have the 22 minutes of content for eight minutes of advertising, let's take any length we want."

He and his partner Lynwood Bibbens wanted to make people's experiences a bit more personal while waiting to take off to their destination.

It's fairly simple to maneuver and no apps are required. I repeat: No apps or fees are required (how different!). If you're watching ReachMe.TV on one of the airport's screens but need to step away, you can just head to ReachMe.TV on your phone and type in the channel you were just watching (which was displayed on the screen) and voila! CBS signed a 10-year partnership contract with ReachMe.TV to provide programming on its stations and affiliates and will reach the top 50 airports across the United States and Canada, so get ready for a new method of entertaining before boarding. Bonus: It'll also be available in 750,000 hotel rooms.

"We took an aging, rusted concept of slapping a TV in a public place, and we put a new dress on it and took it back to the prom," Bloom told Business Insider. "Doing that we got companies to not think about it not just as a screen, but as a gateway to their customers."

Now waiting in the terminal doesn't sound so boring, huh?