How a Live-Feed From LAX Became YouTube’s Latest Hit – The Hollywood Reporter

On any given day, Nancy Bliven will spend hours watching 747s roar down the runway at LAX. Which itself might not be particularly remarkable — except for the fact that she lives more than 2,000 miles away. “I’ll turn on the 24-hour YouTube channel and put that on,” says the 68-year-old retired computer consultant from Wixom, Michigan. “It as much entertains my cats as it does me.” Bliven is part of a growing global community of virtual plane-spotters — aviation fans who tune in remotely to livestreams of major airports. Think of it as the Bob Rossification of air travel: planes taking off and landing in high def, narrated in soothing tones by amateur broadcasters who’ve turned this niche pastime into a big-time business. Her favorite channel? Airline Videos, a YouTube juggernaut with more than 800,000 subscribers. Three times a week, creator Kevin Ray livestreams jumbo jets arriving and departing at LAX, among other airfields, splicing in air traffic control audio, eye-catching onscreen graphics and his own colorful play-by-play that gives the whole thing the feel of a cable sports broadcast — if ESPN covered nothing but wide-body Boeings. Other livestreaming channels have also found audiences: Airliners Live, based out
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