Simon Cox Blog: Families Can Filter HBO and Netflix

Tuesday 27 June 2017

Families Can Filter HBO and Netflix—for Now

VidAngel is back. But the jury is still out on its legality.

What’s Game of Thrones like without the nudity? House of Cards without the cursing? Subscribers to a new app are about to find out.

VidAngel, the Mormon-owned movie filtering company, announced plans this month to launch a service allowing families to watch customized versions of HBO, Netflix, and Amazon shows and movies for $7.99 a month.

More than 200,000 fans watched the live video where CEO Neal Harmon declared “VidAngel is back!” and debuted the app. It’s currently available on iOS and Android, and slated to be coming soon to other streaming devices.

The new project comes as VidAngel continues to fight in court for people of faith to have the right to stream movies “however the bleep” they want, and as competitors continue to clamor for the family-friendly Christian audience.

The Utah-based company, with 100,000-plus subscribers and the backing of evangelical groups like Focus on the Family, was forced to take down its streaming offerings in January, after studios levied lawsuits based on US copyright and encryption regulations.

Its old platform relied on a pay-per-rental, Redbox-style setup. The new service, which includes more than 1,600 titles, resembles an unlimited subscription model. Both formats let viewers customize which content they would like removed or bleep, down to the word.

“Rewatching #StrangerThings via @VidAngel with the boys. They are loving it & it’s great we can edit out the profanity & sexual references,” a dad in Texas tweeted last week.

The faith-based audience is huge, as evidenced by the success of recent Christian movies like War Room, and eager for more to watch. A 2013 LifeWay Research survey found that evangelicals and born-again Christians ...