PROVO, Utah—The founders of VidAngel, an online video platform that raised red flags across the industry with its filtering of Hollywood content, have sold their filtering business and officially rebranded as Angel Studios, a crowdfunded content platform.
Angel Studios will allow “Angel investors” to choose the titles that are selected, funded and distributed on the Angel Studios streaming platform. Angel Studios is launching with $5 million regulation crowdfunding offering.
VidAngel stirred the entertainment industry a few years ago when it offered filtered versions of movies and TV shows over streaming. The studios believed that VidAngel was violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act with its practices, and ultimately the Ninth Circuit Court put an injunction on the practice.
Since then, VidAngel dipped into original content, for which it says it earned $47 million in revenue in 2020, nearly 10x what its filtering business did. VidAngel.com has been sold to a new entity called VidAngel Entertainment Inc., which will be entirely focused on filtering.
Angel Studios already has test samples of original programming, including “The Chosen,” which it says generated $30 million in revenue for its first season in 2020; season two is expected to be released this spring. Other Angel Studio original programming includes “Dry Bar Comedy,” “The Tuttle Twins” and “Freelancers.”
For more information, visit www.angelstudios.com.
