High-flying Fox Movie Channel signed its first airline distribution deal, putting programming and promotion for the network in front of passengers on America West's 800 daily flights.

The in-flight programming will be customized shorts on making movies and the people who make them based on material from the channel's library of interstitial material. Fox, which won't be paid for its programming, will get 45 seconds before and after the shorts that it can use to promote the network or sell to a sponsor. Fox also gets advertising in the airline's in-flight magazine.

?With our success getting distribution for our core networks, we're just really now trying to poke around into new ways of reaching people,? said Lindsay Gardner, EVP-affiliate sales and marketing, Fox Cable Network Group.

Fox Movie Channel is in 20 million homes and was tops on Beta Research's latest survey of most-wanted cable networks. ?I can't imagine a better way to show our wares to a captive audience,? said Mark De Vitre, general manager of Fox Movie Channel.

De Vitre said the channel is working on a new half-hour series with a working title of Cinemajig about the making of key moments in Fox movies. It will make its debut in conjunction with the Academy Awards. FMC films run commercial-free, but De Vitre said the channel is looking for a sponsor for Cinemajig.

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