Spafax Leadership Q&A Series – Fergus Boyce
Spafax Spotlight: Meet the Spafax Thought Leaders
Meet The Spafax Thought Leaders is our Q&A series highlighting the people behind Spafax – what they do, how they think, and where they see the industry going. From day-to-day operations to big-picture strategy, these conversations offer a window into the ideas shaping our work.
Fergus Boyce, SVP – Media Supply Chain
Fergus Boyce joined Spafax in 2024 after more than 25 years working in television and broadcasting. His background spans global broadcast operations, international content management, and content distribution, with a strong focus on building and leading high-performing teams that deliver complex media operations at scale.
In simple terms, what does the media supply chain team at Spafax do, and what are you responsible for end-to-end?
The Media Supply Chain covers our Global Operations and Metadata teams, based in London, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Dubai, and Beijing. These teams are responsible for delivering everything airlines need for IFE: video and audio files, subtitles, dubbing, images, and metadata. End-to-end, that means ensuring the right content is prepared, localized, quality-checked, and delivered correctly to our airline clients.
What’s something that might surprise people about what it takes to keep Spafax’s operation running at a high standard?
It’s not all about technology infrastructure, tools, or streamlined workflow management. While those are essential, the most important component is people. Any organization is only as strong as its people, and I’m very lucky to lead some of the most experienced and knowledgeable teams in the IFE industry.
How do you balance standardization with airline-specific requirements without creating unnecessary complexity?
I think of the supply chain as having a left side and a right side. The left side is inputs, which you standardize as much as possible. That gives you the space to focus on airline-specific requirements and complexity on the right side, where customization really matters.
What recent shift in airline or passenger expectations has forced operations to evolve the fastest?
Without a doubt, it’s connectivity enabled by LEO satellite constellations. It will be both transformative and challenging for the industry. By 2030, passengers will expect reliable Wi-Fi in the same way they now expect a functioning restroom and a meal on a long-haul flight.
Which parts of the media supply chain are ready for automation, and where is human judgment still essential?
In principle, all parts of the media supply chain are open to automation. However, automation depends on metadata, and human judgment is essential to ensure that metadata is accurate, complete, and used effectively across the supply chain.
Human judgment is also critical for content curation and programming, which ultimately determine what content needs to be delivered to each airline. While still in its early stages, agentic AI will likely accelerate automation in the near future and support, rather than replace, human decision-making.
How do you keep global teams aligned across time zones and disciplines without relying on endless meetings?
Trust and communication. I strongly believe in self-managing teams. We set goals together, but teams are empowered to make the right decisions on behalf of our clients. My role is to support them, remove obstacles, and act as an escalation point when needed.
What’s one long-held assumption about content delivery or fulfillment that you think is now outdated?
That it is easy! Just look at any domestic streaming service, and you’ll see constant challenges: missing artwork, late launches, incorrect spellings, missing languages, missing forced narratives or elements overlapping on the GUI. What we do is far from easy.
What does “great” look like in IFE fulfillment in 2026: speed, quality, flexibility, cost efficiency, or something else?
First and foremost, it’s about hitting deadlines. With unlimited time, anyone could deliver something perfect. The real challenge is providing a consistently high standard of service, month in and month out, under real-world time pressure. And that takes hard work and extraordinary dedication.
You’ll be speaking at APEX TECH 2026 on edge caching and streaming. What’s the practical takeaway for airlines and IFEC partners?
Thanks to LEO satellites, fully connected aircraft in the truest sense are here now. This connectivity will enable consumers to take advantage of it on their own terms, and airlines now need to move quickly to meet passenger expectations. On seatback screens, that means more content delivered rapidly and for it to be personalized. On passengers’ devices, that means access to all the services they enjoy at home today. And this access will either be through the airline’s own services or via licensing deals that allow aircraft to access OTT services.
Catch Fergus at APEX TECH 2026
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 | 4:30 – 5:15 PM
Location: Los Angeles, CA USA
And finally, what’s one unexpected fact about you that most colleagues wouldn’t guess or know about you?
Although I’m a proud Londoner, I was born in Ireland and spent part of my childhood in Latin America, attending an American expat school. I also spent two years in my twenties backpacking around the world. I’m a true internationalist with a love of travel and entertainment – so I suppose you could say I’m in the right job.
