VidAngel

Last updated

VidAngel
TypePublic
IndustryEntertainment
Founded2013;11 years ago (2013)
Headquarters
Lehi, Utah
,
United States
Area served
United States
Key people
Bill Aho (CEO)
ServicesCustom filtering of streaming media
Website vidangel.com

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]

Contents

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

Founding

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

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]

Lawsuit

In 2016, four major Hollywood studios – Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, Disney Enterprises, Inc., and Warner Bros. – filed a federal lawsuit against VidAngel for circumventing copyright protection on DVDs and for unlicensed video streaming, accusing them of violating the DMCA. [15] The court granted Disney's motion for a preliminary injunction, declaring that VidAngel had violated copyright laws by circumventing copyright protection technology on DVDs and by hosting the streamed content on VidAngel's computer servers without appropriate licensing and permission from copyright holders. [16] The court also rejected VidAngel's Fair Use defense. [17]

The judge ordered VidAngel to stop streaming movies. [18] VidAngel requested a stay, which was denied. [19] The injunction was upheld upon appeal. [20] [21]

Streaming model

In June 2017, shortly after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied their request to lift the injunction, VidAngel announced a new streaming service for $9.99 per month to filter content streamed through Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO. Only titles from studios not included in the lawsuit were available. [22] In a June 2017 statement, Netflix noted: "We have not endorsed or approved the VidAngel technology". [23] VidAngel customers are required to have a separate Netflix or Amazon subscription in addition to a VidAngel subscription

In October 2017, VidAngel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a legal strategy to protect the company against the ongoing lawsuit and allow it to reorganize its business around its new streaming service. [24] The filing forced a pause on the lawsuit, but allowed business to continue as usual. A statement on the company's blog announced: "VidAngel is not going away", that the company has "millions of dollars in the bank, and now generating millions in revenue," and stated its goal was "to reorganize the business around our new streaming model" to stay in business and pay damages when they finally lose the pending trial. [25] Some customers whose buy-back credits for DVD purchases were included in the bankruptcy among VidAngel's assets were prevented from cashing out these refunds while the bankruptcy was pending. However, Vidangel allowed those buy-back credits to be used for its new streaming service. [2]

In 2019, a Los Angeles jury ordered VidAngel to pay over $62 million in damages to the studios. [26] The amount was reduced to $9.9 million in a settlement in 2020, and VidAngel emerged from bankruptcy. [3] [4] As part of the settlement with the studios, VidAngel agreed not to stream or filter content from the four studios which sued it.

Relaunch

VidAngel emerged from bankruptcy in 2020 and has continued to use the streaming model to filter content through Netflix, Amazon Prime, and later, Apple TV+. In 2021, VidAngel was split into two companies: the filtering business, now legally called VidAngel Entertainment, [27] and Angel Studios, a crowdfunded content platform producing family-friendly and faith-based entertainment. [28] Bill Aho, who had previously been CEO of ClearPlay, became VidAngel's new CEO. Aho kept the company's employees on board and invested more resources in the platform's technology and customer service. Aho stated that the company's legal troubles are in the past and noted that most Hollywood studios chose not to participate in the lawsuit. [5]

In 2022, VidAngel relaunched with a new ad campaign developed by Harmon Brothers. VidAngel's subscriber base doubled in the first year under Aho's ownership. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netflix</span> American video streaming service

Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Video rental shop</span> Physical retail business that rents home videos

A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously viewed movies and/or new, unopened movies.

Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as television shows and films, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable television, and/or satellite television systems.

Starz is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lionsgate, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consists of theatrically released motion pictures and first-run original television series. Launched in 1994 as a multiplex service of Starz Encore, Starz operates six 24-hour, linear multiplex channels; a traditional subscription video on demand service; and a namesake over-the-top streaming platform that both acts as a TV Everywhere offering for Starz's linear television subscribers and is sold directly to streaming-only consumers.

Redbox Automated Retail, LLC is an American video on-demand streaming and video rental company specializing in DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD rentals and purchases and formerly video games via automated retail kiosks and TVOD, AVOD and FAST services via its website, Android and iOS apps and many consumer electronic devices. Redbox kiosks feature the company's signature red color and are located at convenience stores, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, mass retailers, and pharmacies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IMDb</span> Online media database

IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. Since 1998, it has been owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.

CleanFlicks was a company founded in Utah in 2000 that rented and sold commercially-released DVDs and VHS tapes from which they had edited content which the company considered inappropriate for children or that viewers might otherwise find offensive. CleanFlicks removed sexual content, profanity, some references to deity, and some violence from movies, either by muting audio or clipping entire portions of the track.

Amazon Prime Video, or simply Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by Amazon MGM Studios or licensed to Amazon, as Amazon Originals, with the service also hosting content from other providers, content add-ons, live sporting events, and video rental and purchasing services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital media player</span> Device used for playing media such as online video

A digital media player is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integrated into a home cinema configuration, and attached to a television or AV receiver or both.

FilmOn is an Internet-based television provider owned by FilmOn.TV Networks Inc. Alki David had founded FilmOn.TV Networks in 2006. The company was involved in a prolonged legal case concerning streaming rights with CBS, Fox, and NBC between 2013 and 2017, with FilmOn ultimately settling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motion Picture Association</span> Trade organization representing major American film studios

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and known as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) from 1945 until September 2019, its original goal was to ensure the viability of the American film industry. In addition, the MPA established guidelines for film content which resulted in the creation of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1930. This code, also known as the Hays Code, was replaced by a voluntary film rating system in 1968, which is managed by the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Home video</span> Prerecorded video media that are either sold, rented, or streamed for home entertainment

Home video is recorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. In a different usage, "home video" refers to amateur video recordings, also known as home movies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Relativity Media</span> American media company

Relativity Media, LLC is an American media company founded in 2004 by Lynwood Spinks and Ryan Kavanaugh. The company brokered film finance deals and later branched into film production and other entertainment ventures. The company was commercially successful prior to bankruptcy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MGM+</span> American pay television network

MGM+, formerly known as Epix, is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the MGMPlus Entertainment subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which is itself a subsidiary of Amazon MGM Studios. The channel's programming consists of recent and older theatrically released motion pictures, original television series, documentaries, and music and comedy specials.

Geo-blocking, geoblocking or geolocking is technology that restricts access to Internet content based upon the user's geographical location. In a geo-blocking scheme, the user's location is determined using Internet geolocation techniques, such as checking the user's IP address against a blacklist or whitelist, GPS queries in the case of a mobile device, accounts, and measuring the end-to-end delay of a network connection to estimate the physical location of the user. The result of this check is used to determine whether the system will approve or deny access to the website or to particular content. The geolocation may also be used to modify the content provided, for example, the currency in which goods are quoted, the price or the range of goods that are available, besides other aspects.

Netflix is a subscription streaming service owned by the American company Netflix, Inc. Launched on August 29, 1997, it initially offered DVD rental and sale by mail, but the sales were eliminated within a year to focus on the DVD rental business. In 2007, the company began transitioning to its current subscription streaming model. Since its launch, the company has been subject to numerous criticisms, the basis of which range from its business practices and workplace culture to issues with the service it provides, including content issues, lack of close captioning, and pricing. This article provides an overview of key criticisms the company has faced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angel Studios</span> American media company

Angel Studios, Inc. is an American media company and film distribution studio based in Provo, Utah. It operates the over-the-top video on-demand service Angel Studios. The streaming service is available worldwide and can be accessed via web browsers or via application software installed on smartphones, tablet computers, and smart TVs.

Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. VidAngel, Inc. was a 2016 United States District Court for the Central District of California case in which four major Hollywood studios -- Disney, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.—filed a copyright infringement complaint against VidAngel, a company which allows users to filter out objectionable content from movies and TV shows. The studios alleged that the method VidAngel used to filter and stream films to its users was illegal under copyright law because they broke the encryption on DVDs and Blu-rays. VidAngel contended that their method was legal under an exception provided by the Family Movie Act.

<i>The Chosen</i> (TV series) American television series

The Chosen is an American Christian historical drama television series. Created, directed, and co-written by filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, it is the first multi-season series about the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Primarily set in Judaea and Galilee in the 1st century, the series centers on Jesus and the different people who met and followed or otherwise interacted with him. The series stars Jonathan Roumie as Jesus, alongside Shahar Isaac, Elizabeth Tabish, Paras Patel, Noah James, and George H. Xanthis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netflix, Inc.</span> American media company

Netflix, Inc. is an American media company founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California and currently based in Los Gatos, California. It owns and operates an eponymous over-the-top subscription video on-demand service, which showcases acquired and original programming as well as third-party content licensed from other production companies and distributors. Netflix is also the first streaming media company to be a member of the Motion Picture Association.

References

  1. ↑ Angel Studios Demonstrates the Power of Consumer-Led Entertainment/
  2. 1 2 Raymond, Art (October 23, 2017). "VidAngel files for bankruptcy protection – from its own customers". Deseret News. Archived from the original on November 19, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Bennett, Lauren (September 4, 2020). "VidAngel to pay $9.9 million in copyright lawsuit instead of original $62.4M". KSL-TV . Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  4. 1 2 "VidAngel Settles 4-Year Battle With Disney And Warner Bros, Agreeing To Pay $9.9M To Emerge From Bankruptcy". Deadline Hollywood . September 4, 2020. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 'You guys are still here?': VidAngel relaunches after 4-year legal battle
  6. ↑ McCord, Keith (August 21, 2014). "Provo company creates program that filters online content". Deseret News . Deseret Digital Media . Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  7. ↑ VidAngel. "Online Child Protection Startup VidAngel Moves Headquarters to Silicon Valley". Market Wired. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  8. ↑ Alois, JD (December 4, 2016). "VidAngel Crowdfunded $5 Million in Just 28 Hours Under Reg A+". Crowdfund Insider. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  9. ↑ Turner, Rod (November 21, 2016). "VidAngel Boasts the Fastest Reg A+ Raise So Far". Equities.com. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Legally Embattled VidAngel Movie-Streaming Site Raises $10 Million From Fans". variety.com. Variety. December 12, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  11. 1 2 "VidAngel Offering Circular (Oct 19, 2016).pdf". Google Docs.
  12. ↑ Scribner, Herb (December 1, 2016). "Amid controversial court case, VidAngel makes the case for family friendly movies in new video". Deseret News. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  13. ↑ Is VidAngel Legal? Archived from the original on June 12, 2020
  14. ↑ Gardner, Eriq (June 21, 2017). "Hollywood Studios Are Suspicious of VidAngel's New Filtering App - Hollywood Reporter". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  15. ↑ "U.S. DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA WESTERN DIVISION CASE NO. CV16-04109" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 21, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  16. ↑ Lauren A. McGee (2016) Judge clips VidAngel's naughty wings, The Biederman Blog, Southwestern Law School, February 3, 2017, accessed August 3, 2017 Archived August 4, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ↑ Eggerton, John (December 13, 2016). "Court Blocks VidAngel Video Filtering Service | Broadcasting & Cable". www.broadcastingcable.com. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  18. ↑ "Federal judge blocks Utah-based VidAngel from filtering movies". Fox 13 Now. Fox13 TV News. December 12, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  19. ↑ TV News Desk (January 5, 2017). "VidAngel Responds to 9th Circuit Decision". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  20. ↑ Stempel, Jonathan (2017). "Hollywood studios win ruling over VidAngel family-friendly filters". Reuters. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  21. ↑ Raymond, Art (August 25, 2017). "9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejects VidAngel's injunction appeal". Deseret News. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  22. ↑ Cullins, Ashley (June 13, 2017). "VidAngel Launches New Platform Amid Studio Legal Battle (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  23. ↑ Scribner, Herb. "Netflix says it has not 'endorsed or approved' VidAngel's new technology". Deseret News. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
  24. ↑ Legal Entertainment (October 18, 2017). "VidAngel Uses Bankruptcy Strategy To Fend Off Studios". Forbes. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  25. ↑ Harmon, Neal (October 18, 2017). "VidAngel Uses Chapter 11 Protection to Pause Los Angeles Lawsuit to Reorganize Its Business Around The New Streaming Model - VidAngel Blog". VidAngel. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  26. ↑ Winslow, Ben; Burt, Spencer (June 17, 2019). "VidAngel ordered to pay $62 million in lawsuit". KSTU . Archived from the original on August 16, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  27. ↑ Scribner, Herb (March 25, 2021). "VidAngel founders have launched a new studio". Deseret News.
  28. ↑ "VidAngel Rebrands as Angel Studios for Crowdfunding Content". March 23, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.