Delta to Agents: Pay Me Later?

So Delta has joined the chorus of pay for access to airline owned content.

Richard Anderson CEO said during today's analyst call reporting on Q1 results:

"Over time, the industry will evolve, People will pay us for our content." Clarifying that the content would be also purchased by GDSs - or maybe that Agents will pay via the GDS Anderson said:

"But GDS costs, will continue to come down. Ultimately, GDSs will pay for content, as is done for hotel bookings."

Following on from AA's Arpey, his comments seem to represent a statement of intent - a volley in the war that will come to a pitch battle in 2011 when the Full Content Contracts come up for renewal.

Gerard Arpey said, clarifying his earlier comments "I was simply making the observation that the paradigm in the airline business has been that historically we pay our distributors to sell our product. And that has been shifting over many years, because we have been able to cut domestic commissions, domestic overrides and booking fees.

I notice that nothing was said about the cost of Google in all this discussion.

So pay me now or pay me later - WILL YOU PAY?

Indeed a question for many of us to ponder.

Cheers