Netflix didn't invent anything: streaming has existed for 144 years

Together with “AI,” it is one of the buzzwords that will accompany us for decades: streaming is the big novelty, something that has broken with everything we knew. There is no longer a need to buy movies or go to the cinema to watch them or download them: now it is enough to turn on the television, choose what you want, and watch and simply enjoy. The concept has sunk thousands of video rental stores and is on its way to harming the cinema industry as well, but the truth is that the idea of paying monthly for a streaming service is not new, nor was it invented by Netflix. In fact, before the Internet and cinema itself, in Paris, there was something very similar: the Theatrophone.

Live operas for four francs!

Let’s set the scene: the year is 1881. The Lumière brothers, aged 19, were attending the La Martiniere technical school, and in France, few dreamed of such a thing as moving images. At that time, the great novelty was electricity and the telephone, which, after Graham Bell’s patent five years earlier, was becoming fashionable among the upper classes of Paris. The possibilities were endless: if you could hear the voice of a friend who was miles away as if they were right next to you, what couldn’t this magnificent device do? And there was one person who saw it very clearly: there was a way to profit from the invention.

The telephone and electricity, together as one, gave rise to the Theatrophone, a system through which opera and live music could be transmitted to your home via a dual-channel system. In fact, this was the first stereo audio streaming in history, and the place for its debut, of course, was the Electric Exhibition in Paris, which collaborated with the Paris Opera: if you wanted to listen, it was as simple as picking up one of the 80 phones displayed at the fair and immediately being enveloped by the voice of the soprano and the tenors.

Of course, something so expensive could only work on a subscription basis, and not just in France. For example, in Portugal, King Dom Luis, an opera fan, requested it to be installed in the palace because he could not go see Laureana at the theater in person. What was the price? 90 performances for 180,000 reais (which, if you are wondering, was not particularly cheap). Pubs in the United Kingdom started to hire it and charge customers (50 cents for ten minutes) who wanted to use it, and, of course, in Paris they knew how to capitalize on it in time: in 1890, the theatrophone offered opera, plays, and news bulletins. And if you think it was a flash in the pan, you are mistaken.

The theatrophone lasted until 1932, holding market dominance for 42 years and it was known that famous people like Marcel Proust or Queen Victoria used it. But of course, radio eventually arrived and swept everything away: a free system, much more convenient and with greater variety: Obviously, no one was interested in the telephone anymore! Some found it hard to let go, because the theatrophone made a lot of money, as it worked not only from home: there were devices dedicated solely to this purpose in all kinds of places.

So now you know: the next time you put on a movie on HBO Max or a podcast on Spotify, remember that perhaps in 150 years someone will talk about you as a mere curiosity at the foot of history, just like the theatrophone: the first streaming (and the most forgotten) in history.