VidAngel
VidAngel is an American streaming video company that allows the user to skip objectionable content based on user preferences regarding profanity, nudity, sexual situations, and graphic violence. The company uses customizable filters to automatically cut out scenes or sounds which the viewer does not want to see or hear. The company was launched in 2014 by the Harmon Brothers in Utah. The company used equity crowdfunding to fund its growth, raising $10 million from customer-investors.[1]
Company type
Public
Entertainment
2013
United States
Bill Aho (CEO)
Custom filtering of streaming media
In 2016, it was sued by several major Hollywood studios who said the original method it used to filter objectionable content from movies, which involved decrypting DVDs and Blu-rays, violated copyright protections. VidAngel fought the lawsuit for several years, asserting its method was legal under the Family Movie Act. It developed a new model based on streaming whereby it filters a video stream from Netflix and Amazon. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017 as a legal strategy to protect the company against the lawsuit and allow it to reorganize its business around the streaming service.[2] It continued to operate during the bankruptcy process. In 2020, VidAngel reached a settlement with the four studios, agreeing to pay $9.9 million to the studios, and emerged from bankruptcy.[3][4] The settlement prohibits VidAngel from streaming content from the four studios which sued it, but it can stream content from other studios. In 2022, VidAngel relaunched under new ownership.[5]
Its current model is based entirely on streaming, filtering movies and TV shows from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+. It also filters titles from other services which are available through Amazon, including Showtime, Starz, Paramount+, AMC+, BritBox, and PBS Masterpiece.
History[edit]
Founding[edit]
VidAngel was founded in 2013 and launched in 2014 by the Harmon brothers in Provo, Utah as a startup company with six employees.[6] In March 2014, the company said it had moved its headquarters to California's Silicon Valley.[7] The brothers had previously founded Harmon Brothers, an ad agency. According to Neal Harmon, the brothers were fed up with explicit material and wanted to be able to show movies to their kids.
In December 2016, VidAngel began a Regulation A+ securities offering (mini initial public offering) to get $5 million in investments.[8] It met its goal after 28 hours and had over $10 million after five days.[9][10] They assigned 42% of the $10 million to advertising and 26% to legal costs associated with the studio lawsuit.[11] Harmon Brothers, owned by VidAngel founders and officers Neal Harmon and Jeffery Harmon, will make the advertisements.[11]
Disc-based model[edit]
Under its original model, VidAngel purchased thousands of DVDs and Blu-rays of films. Customers could select a film to buy from VidAngel for $20. VidAngel would reserve a disc of that film for the customer. VidAngel would then stream a master copy of the film to the customer based on their unique customized filters. After viewing the film, the customer could choose to sell its "copy" back to VidAngel for $19, making the net cost $1 for 24 hours.
VidAngel cited the Family Movie Act of 2005 (FMA) as legally protecting customers' right to use their service to filter films.[12] VidAngel's public statements included the claim that FMA protects filtered streaming as long as the movie is an authorized copy watched in the privacy of the home, and no permanent filtered copy is created.[13]
According to VidAngel, after launching DVD and Blu-ray based sales, the company made three other attempts to sell filtering to consumers, including a partnership with Google to add filters to licensed films available on Google Play, filtering movies purchased on YouTube, and buying discs directly from the studios, but the studios rejected all proposals. Studios claimed that VidAngel then bought licensed discs from retail stores, made copies, and employed a method of "streaming from its own 'master' copies of works that VidAngel has created on its own servers rather than layering its filters over an authorized stream".[14]