“ The only operator where you can see all the goals of Ligue 1… is Free. »The little sentence spoken by Xavier Niel at the beginning of July on the occasion of the launch of the Freebox Pop has - almost - gone unnoticed. But it says a lot about the operator's ambitions. After putting 50 million euros on the green carpet, Xavier Niel intends to value his investment.
Subscribers to Freebox Pop, Delta, One, Revolution and Mini 4K (the vast majority of Free fixed-line customers) will have access "at no additional cost" to the application called Free Ligue 1 Uber Eats. It will be accessible on all its boxes. For other subscribers, including mobile subscribers (Free Package), it will be downloadable on a smartphone via the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
Non-subscribers to Free are offered the free application "until August 31", which should correspond to two days of the championship, subject to new changes in the calendar. A "discovery offer" with which Free hopes to seduce football fans. The application will then be paid, but the operator has not yet communicated a price.
The operator promises a broadcast of the "best moments of the 380 matches of Ligue 1, almost live, as well as magazines, interviews, podcasts ... on VOD". Thomas Reynaud, CEO of Free, promises three types of content. First, notifications sent to subscribers during matches will give them access to 60-second snippets in near live. There may be up to thirty minutes of images per game.
Free will also offer a summary of the matches and the best moments of the championship, exclusively until Sunday evening. And finally, “ exclusive products ” including “ a dozen or so meetings per week ” with analyzes, interviews, offbeat shows with a “ different ” approach . Football will be " approached from all angles, from Ligue 1 to video games ", using the codes of social networks. A “U-Foot” magazine will be presented by Thomas Thourdoude, another “U19” will be “a dive into the heart of training centers to discover young talents”.
Matches with actions, goals and no downtime, all in "quasi-direct" ... Free is betting on this cocktail to appeal to a younger, more impatient clientele.