Global Eagle Entertainment Reports Strong First Quarter 2015 Results

• Q1 2015 revenue of $100.3 million and Adjusted EBITDA* of $8.2 million, representing year-over-year growth of 17% and 61%, respectively
• Record Connectivity segment service revenue of $22.2 million grew 35% year-over-year and Connectivity segment service margin expanded to a record 38%
• Continued to gain content services market share with key wins at three new airline customers
• GEE's AIRCONNECT satellite connectivity system scheduled for factory install on initial launch of Boeing 737 MAX with Southwest Airlines
• Strong balance sheet with $277.3 million in cash at the end of Q1 2015

LOS ANGELES, May 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Eagle Entertainment Inc. (Nasdaq:ENT) ("Global Eagle", "GEE" or the "Company"), a market-leading media and connectivity provider to the travel industry, today reported strong financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015.

Global Eagle Entertainment Logo

Consolidated revenue for Q1 2015 reached $100.3 million and Adjusted EBITDA* was $8.2 million, representing year-over-year growth of 17% and 61%, respectively. During the quarter, GEE achieved a number of significant accomplishments, including new customer wins, increased margins and new product and technology launches.

"Our Q1 results demonstrate continued strong performance across our business units," commented Dave Davis, Chief Executive Officer of GEE. "We are seeing solid results in our core Content Services, Connectivity Systems, and Digital Media Solutions groups, highlighted by new content wins at several major airlines, and a strong increase in connectivity services revenue and margins. At the same time, we are gaining traction in Operations Data Solutions with the introduction into service of the AIRPRO workflow management tool."

"It is important to note that we delivered favorable results while at the same time making investments in our new Global Ku Antenna system, line fit offerability of our connectivity system, IT infrastructure and international field support," continued Davis.

"We ended Q1 with strong revenue and Adjusted EBITDA* year-over-year growth," said Michael Zemetra, Chief Financial Officer. "We are realizing significant synergies from past acquisitions, while posting growth and margin expansion across our product groups. GEE's balance sheet remains extremely strong and we are well-positioned to continue making growth-orientated investments in 2015."

Financial Results

The table below presents financial results for the three-months ended March 31, 2015 and 2014.

Capital expenditures for Q1 2015 totaled approximately $2.7 million. The Company finished the first quarter of 2015 with approximately $277.3 million in cash, $69.6 million of convertible debt, excluding $13 million of convertible debt classified as equity, and approximately $2.7 million in other debt.

Segment Results

Content segment revenue grew by $8.1 million, or 13%, to $71.7 million in Q1 2015 versus $63.6 million in Q1 2014, driven by competitive wins with new customers and expanding services with existing customers. Content segment contribution margin improved to 30% in Q1 2015 versus 28% in Q1 2014 largely due to product mix, coupled with an improved cost structure associated with the integration of prior acquisitions.

Connectivity segment revenue grew by $6.2 million, or 28%, to $28.6 million in Q1 2015 versus $22.4 million in Q1 2014, principally due to an overall increase in connected aircraft and passenger Wi-Fi usage. Connectivity service revenue grew to $22.2 million, up 35% versus Q1 2014, due to increased Wi-Fi usage and continued growth in installations. Connectivity service segment contribution margin improved to 38% in Q1 2015 versus 17% in Q1 2014 due to higher take rates and increased service revenue per aircraft, coupled with improved optimization of satellite bandwidth expenses.

Recent Highlights

Key accomplishments since announcing fourth quarter 2014 results include the following:

• GEE's AIRCONNECT Satellite Connectivity System Scheduled for Factory Install on Initial Launch of Boeing 737 MAX. Southwest Airlines has chosen GEE's Ku-band AIRCONNECT global satellite connectivity system to be factory installed on its initial orders for the Boeing 737 MAX. First delivery of these airplanes is expected in 2017.
• Grew Content Services Market Share with Key Wins at Three New Customers and Expanded Services to Existing Customers. GEE continues to grow its content business, winning three new contracts in competitive bids during the quarter.
• GEE and Air China Launch Live Television Test Flight. This represented the first live inflight television broadcast in China. GEE successfully partnered with Air China using GEE's AIRCONNECT Ku-band connectivity system for Xinhua News Agency's ground-breaking inflight newscast.
• Revolutionary Global Ku Broadband Antenna System Unveiled. GEE unveiled its revolutionary patented three-axis steering Global Ku Antenna at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany. This antenna, under joint development with QEST, is the first in the market to offer truly global Ku-band connectivity, including coverage on both high latitude and equatorial flight routes. The antenna is compatible with GEE's current certifications and future linefit installations.
• WISE Wireless Content Solution Deployed with New Customer. BAE Systems launched its IntelliCabin product with Air Vistara, with the delivery of inflight entertainment content enabled by GEE's WISE software system. GEE's WISE system provides an end-to-end software and content solution for wireless IFE. In addition, the media content on Air Vistara will be supplied by GEE.
• Launched Two Important Trials with New Products.
  • The new AIRSIDE product was launched in a trial with a new international customer. AIRSIDE allows pre-flight (ground) download of IFE content to passengers' mobile devices. The content is unlocked for viewing while inflight or 'airside', based on a passenger's booking PNR code.
  • The AIRPRO operations product began a trial with a North American carrier. AIRPRO is a tablet-based workflow management tool for cabin crews. It provides crews with electronic access to manuals, tools for paperless reporting, airline-to crew messaging, an electronic Passenger Information List, and buy-on-board capabilities.
• Completed Bandwidth Procurement Agreements for Three High Throughput Satellites (HTS). These agreements are part of a strategic partnership with SES to deliver high speed in-flight connectivity and services to airline passengers around the world.
• Launched Branded Portfolio of Products and Services. GEE has standardized the branding of its product portfolio under the AIR Series moniker.
• Signed New Exclusive Content Distribution Agreements. GEE has signed new and exclusive content distribution agreements with Elevation Pictures, Search Engine Films and Infobase, among others.
• Launched Rovio's Popular Angry Birds to the Airlines. GEE will provide the world's best-known casual mobile gaming franchise, Angry Birds, to airlines as inflight entertainment content.
• Entered into Multiple New Relationships to Offer Digital Media Services. GEE has launched new digital media programs with Kobo JetBooks and Waterfall and continued to expand on relationships with A Look at Media and Gizmo Media, increasing its digital media offering to airlines.
• Appointed Steve Hasker from Nielsen N.V. to Board of Directors. Hasker currently serves as Global President at Nielsen N.V., an S&P 500 company that provides global performance management services relating to media viewing and consumer behavior.

Full Year 2015 Guidance

The Company reiterates its guidance for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2015 as follows:

• Revenue in the range of $415-435 million
• Adjusted EBITDA* in the range of $45-55 million
• Capital expenditures in the range of $10-13 million
• GEE has an installation backlog for its AIRCONNECT satellite connectivity system of 175-200 units, representing approximately 2 years of installation activity.

Conference Call

Global Eagle will host a webcast to discuss its first quarter 2015 results on Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. EDT (2:00 p.m. PDT). The webcast will be available on the investor relations portion of the Company's Web site located at http://investors.geemedia.com/events.cfm. If you cannot listen to the webcast at its scheduled time, there will be a webcast replay archived on the Global Eagle website for 30 days.

About Global Eagle

Global Eagle Entertainment Inc. (Nasdaq:ENT) is a worldwide provider of media content, technology, and connectivity solutions to the travel industry. Through the industry's most comprehensive product and services platform, Global Eagle Entertainment provides airlines with a wide range of in-flight solutions. These include Wi-Fi, movies, television, music, interactive software, as well as portable IFE solutions, content management services, e-commerce solutions and original content development.  Serving approximately 150 airlines worldwide, Global Eagle Entertainment delivers exceptional quality and value to its customers to help them achieve their passenger experience objectives.  The company's headquarters are located in Los Angeles, California, with offices and teams located in North America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Oceania and South America.  Find out more at www.geemedia.com

* About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America, or GAAP, we present Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, as a measure of our performance. The presentation of Adjusted EBITDA is not intended to be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, or superior to, net income (loss) or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP or as an alternative to net cash provided by operating activities or any other measures of our cash flow or liquidity. For more information on this non-GAAP financial measure, please see the table entitled "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measure to GAAP MEASURE" at the end of this release.

Adjusted EBITDA is the primary measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our financial performance and operating trends, including period to period comparisons, to prepare and approve our annual budget and to develop short and long term operational plans. Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA is the primary measure used by the compensation committee of our board of directors to establish the funding targets for and fund the annual bonus pool for our employees and executives. We believe our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors both because it allows for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision-making and our management frequently uses it in discussions with investors, commercial bankers, securities analysts and other users of our financial statements.

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders before, when applicable, net income (loss) attributable to non-controlling interests, income tax expense (benefit), other income (expense), depreciation and amortization, as further adjusted to eliminate the impact of, when applicable, stock-based compensation, acquisition and realignment costs, restructuring charges, F/X gain (loss) on intercompany loans and any gains or losses on certain asset sales or dispositions. Other income (expense), acquisition and realignment costs and restructuring charges include such items, when applicable, as (a) non-cash GAAP purchase accounting adjustments for certain deferred revenue and costs, (b) legal, accounting and other professional fees directly attributable to acquisition and/or the February 2015 financing activity, (c) employee severance payments and third party professional fees directly attributable to acquisition or corporate realignment activities, (d) certain non-recurring expenses associated with our expansion into China that did not generate associated revenue in 2014, (e) legal settlements or reserves for legal settlements in the period that pertain to historical matters that existed at acquired companies prior to their purchase date, (f) impairment of a portion of certain receivables directly attributable to a customer undergoing economic hardships from trade sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States on Russia, (g) changes in the fair value of our derivative financial instruments and (h) any restructuring charges in the period pursuant to our integration plan announced on September 23, 2014. Management does not consider these costs to be indicative of our core operating results.

With respect to projected full year 2015 Adjusted EBITDA, a quantitative reconciliation is not available without unreasonable efforts, and we are unable to address the probable significance of the unavailable information.

Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

We make forward-looking statements in this release within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements relate to expectations or forecasts for future events, including, without limitation, our earnings, Adjusted EBITDA, revenues, expenses or other future financial or business performance or strategies, or the impact of legal or regulatory matters on our business, results of operations or financial condition. These statements may be preceded by, followed by or include the words "may," "might," "will," "will likely result," "should," "estimate," "plan," "project," "forecast," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "continue," "target" or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date they were made, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties which may cause them to turn out to be wrong. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, our actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: our ability to expand our domestic and international business, including our ability to grow our business with current and potential future airline partners and successfully partner with satellite service providers, including Hughes Network Systems and SES S.A.; our ability to grow through acquisitions, and the ability of our management to integrate acquisitions and manage growth profitably; our obligations under the convertible notes that we issued in February 2015, and our ability to successfully use the proceeds therefrom; our management's ability to recognize changing trends in the systems, services and business model requirements of our current and potential future customers; our ability to sustain historic levels of revenue from our "TV Flies Free" offering on Southwest Airlines and our ability to replicate this model with other airlines; the ability of our content segment to provide unique content curation and delivery services attractive to non-theatrical customers, including the airlines and studios; the outcome of any legal proceedings pending or that may be instituted against us; changes in laws or regulations that apply to us or our industry; our ability to recognize and timely implement future technologies in the content delivery space, including wireless content delivery, and the satellite connectivity space, including Ku-HTS and other competing satellite technologies, system developments and deployments; our ability to deliver end-to-end connectivity network performance sufficient to meet the increasing demands of our airline customers and their passengers; our ability to generate sufficient service revenues to recover costs associated with equipment subsidies and other start-up expenses that we may incur in connection with sales of our connectivity solution; our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory and international authorizations to operate our connectivity service over the airspace of foreign jurisdictions our customers utilize; our ability to timely and cost-effectively identify and license television, audio and media content that airlines and/or passengers demand and will purchase; general economic and technological circumstances in the satellite transponder market, including access to transponder capacity in limited regions and successful launch of replacement transponder capacity where and when applicable; our ability to obtain and maintain licenses for content used on legacy installed in-flight entertainment systems and next generation in-flight entertainment systems; the loss of, or failure to realize benefits from, agreements with our airline partners; the loss of relationships with original equipment manufacturers or dealers; unfavorable economic conditions in the airline industry and economy as a whole, and in particular arising from sanctions against Russia and the instability in the Middle East; the reliance on third-party satellite service providers and equipment and other suppliers, including single source providers and suppliers; the effects of service interruptions or delays, technology failures, material defects or errors in our software or hardware, damage to our network resources, disruption of our content delivery systems or geopolitical restrictions; the limited operating history of our connectivity and in-flight television and media products; costs associated with defending pending or future intellectual property infringement actions and other litigation or claims and costs associated with other legal matters; increases in our projected capital expenditures due to, among other things, unexpected costs incurred in connection with the roll out of our technology roadmap or our international expansion plans, including managing rapid changes in available competitive technologies and product development of such technologies; fluctuation in our operating results; the demand for in-flight broadband Internet access services and market acceptance for our products and services; and other risks and uncertainties set forth in this release and in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Financial Information

The table below presents financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2014.

CONTACT: Kevin Trosian
         Vice President, Corporate Development
         and Investor Relations
         +1 310-740-8624
         investor.relations@globaleagleent.com

         pr@globaleagleent.com

Released May 6, 2015