VidAngel announced that it is launching VidAngel studios, an original family-friendly content arm.
The decision arrives in the wake of a court-ordered injunction that could ultimately stop VidAngel, a service that offers streaming movies with all the adult content taken out, from showing films from studios including Disney and Warner Bros.
In a video posted to the company’s Facebook page, VidAngel CEO Neal Harmon details his company’s plans to fill its customers’ demand for wholesome entertainment. VidAngel Studios will begin creating original content in early 2017 and will release three independent original films this month.
Besides revealing VidAngel’s original content strategy, though giving no details about about its upcoming releases, Harmon used the video to again state that VidAngel is seeking a stay of the injunction in order to keep its current movie library intact and also filing an appeal in order to permanently reverse the decision.
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Earlier this week, California Federal Judge Andre Birotte, Jr., granted Disney's request for a preliminary injunction against VidAngel pending trial. VidAngel, which sells DVD copies to customers and allows them to stream a filtered version of the film before selling back the DVD, said the legal action was another attempt to “gut the 2005 Family Movie Act and prevent VidAngel from lawfully empowering parents and families to filter content on modern devices in their homes.”
“Hollywood studios have followed a repeated pattern in their decades-long campaign to put movie filtering services out of business by seeking a shut-down decision in trial court. Previously, such a decision has signaled the end of the legal battle. As such, while we are extremely disappointed—for the countless people who rely on our service regularly to enjoy movies using filters—our customers have given us not just the mandate to fight this battle all the way to the Supreme Court, but the financial resources as well,” said Harmon in a statement. “We will aggressively pursue an appeal and take this case to a higher level where we have always believed we will ultimately prevail.”
VidAngel claims to have raised $10 million to help in its ongoing legal battle with the studios. Part of VidAngel’s fundraising efforts included selling a T-shirt featuring Mickey Mouse with a Darth Vader helmet and a fox tail, riding a broom and chasing after the VidAngel logo.