Clean-Movie Streaming Service VidAngel Declares Ch. 11 Bankruptcy

By Heather van Blokland
Published: Friday, October 20, 2017 - 5:10am
Updated: Friday, October 20, 2017 - 12:27pm

VidAngel, a streaming service that altered copyrighted works to edit out adult language, nudity and violence, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The announcement Wednesday has created a void in the niche industry to provide similar entertainment services.

The bankruptcy filing comes less than two months after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Disney, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros in their lawsuit that ruled against Utah-based VidAngel for unlicensed use and editing of content. The bankruptcy filing says the company owes its current and former subscribers $4.7 million.

Scottsdale-based PureFlix.com offers a video filtering service that lets its viewers bleep out unwanted content but uses a filtering software to do it, so no content is edited in the process.

PureFlix CEO Greg Gudorf says content filtering is a growing business as viewers want to have a say in what they see and hear. Gudorf says his service offers almost 7,000 pieces of content currently, and like Netflix, offers original content including comedies and dramas.

“And we’ve got a soap opera or what I prefer to call a hope opera that will be debuting before the end of the year.”

Gudorf expects a rise in viewership over the next three months, starting with Halloween, as viewers look for cleaner content.

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