Ten years ago, families would gather in their living rooms to watch cable television. Today, they gather to binge a Netflix or Disney+ series through their subscription services. The content market has dramatically shifted to the subscription model in the past few years. Not only that, but every company is for itself. As a result, consumers are left with five separate subscriptions to fill their content desires. There is plenty of high-quality content today, but much of it contains content unwanted by many Christians. This abundance of explicit content is what VidAngel aims to address.
VidAngel is a subscription service that filters your content, ensuring a pleasurable watching experience without explicit content. The service links to your content subscriptions, such as Netflix, HBO Max, Apple TV+, etc., and allows you to watch their content with applied filters. They offer filters for sexual content, violence, and language. Over the years, they have expanded their filters to specific words and forms of content. A few years ago, a friend’s parents had a VidAngel subscription to ensure their children were filling their hearts and minds with good content. While not all Christian families think this way, VidAngel offers a wonderful service for those who want to limit unwanted content.
VidAngel shows its redemptive efforts through its business model. They, simply put, want to allow people to enjoy the content they want without the explicit themes they do not want. Clearly targeting the Christian community, they have been able to grow and offer more expansion into more services. Its vast capabilities in how many services it syncs to are great. While it adds an extra $10 per month to your overly expensive subscription bills, many are willing to pay for the added benefits. Whether it is for their children or themselves, VidAngel has succeeded in creating a clientele that is willing to pay the price.
This is a really good idea for families who want to have solid streaming content who don’t have the time to be filtering everything out by themselves. I say families because this is an especially good idea for families with young children when there are so many shows out there that can seem very innocent. But once the shows have been started, there can be some very unpleasant messaging or inappropriate scenes that sneaks its way past the parents’ radar. I myself have noticed my sister watching shows that had unsuitable content when my parents never did due to how the show presented itself. All around a fantastic idea for a product.