Many years before Twitch and its success, Free launched the Free TV Perso service in France. Back to a small piece of the history of the Internet in France.
Are you familiar with Free’s Armageddon project? In 2005, this code name was on the front page of all the tech news sites in the French landscape. He designated ” a total marriage of triple play as has never been done anywhere in the world. It’s new technically, it’s new legally, it’s new for Freebox users “, then teased Michaël Boukobza, general manager of Free. Two years later, on June 28, 2007, Free launched its Free TV Perso service resulting from this project.
The principle is simple: it’s Twitch, before Twitch.
Each subscriber can create his own channel
In 2007, high-speed Internet is still in full development and it is still linear television that has a place of choice in homes. We are long before the success of SVOD services like Netflix, the professionalization of YouTube or the emergence of Twitch. Free then had the idea of offering an alternative to TF1 and others by putting creativity in the hands of subscribers. Free TV Perso is the idea for each subscriber to be able to create their own television channel.
The service was accessible from the Freeboxes of subscribers, who could choose to follow live videos, like on Twitch, or pre-recorded videos, rather like YouTube. The interface was very simplistic, a far cry from all the systems subsequently devised to build viewer loyalty and enable them to pay their favorite creators.
And as on Twitch, there were large categories in which creators could place their content. There was obviously a Games category for video games, but also other subjects such as information, music, politics or even science. Remember that Twitch has long refused to accept content other than video games.
A service truly ahead of its time.
Before Elgato, there was the Freebox HD
Today content creators, especially streamers video game, often have an acquisition card that captures the video stream of a console or device. Convenient for live streaming the part of a game on a dedicated PC, or its PlayStation, Switch or Xbox console. Again, this is what Free had planned with its service.
Indeed, the Freebox v5 HD offered video and audio inputs on the TV box for capturing. The small box then integrated a Vixs Xcode II NS chip capable of recording a video stream in Mpeg-2 and Mpeg-4. Given the connections at the time, the bitrate was limited to 900 kbit/s for a live stream, while you could go up to 3.5 Mbit/s for a pre-recorded video.
This is how a young Cassim Ketfi was able to broadcast part of Resident Evil 4 live from his PlayStation 2 at the time by connecting it directly to his Freebox HD.
Over time, a community has been created around Free TV Perso to improve the operation of the service. One thinks in particular of the InteractiveTV software, a kind of precursor of OBS Studio which allowed on a computer to decorate its emission with various modules: text, voice, to create skins, etc.
Apart from the low quality of internet connections, the other weak point facing our contemporary Twitch was the lack of integrated chat. Impossible to interact directly with its spectators, except to indicate a link to an external online chat.
Disappearance of service
Restricted to Freebox subscribers only and never offered through an interface for all Internet users, the service has ultimately never been very successful. Free has also had to deal with complaints about the adult content on the service, but also about various copyright infringements. The famous strike and otherDMCAwere not required at the time and Free did not, to our knowledge, offer a moderation service.
Free TV Perso was disconnected on January 10, 2017. Despite its lack of success, it represents a part of the history of the Internet in France, but also a reminder of a time when Free experimented more to find new uses for its services. .
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