PROVO, Utah – The Provo-based video filter service, VidAngel, has been quietly returning after its legal battle against popular movie studios.
The company reemerged in April 2021 with its new CEO, Bill Aho telling customers they restructured and rebranded from the old company.
“I am pleased to tell all VidAngel customers that a new company, VidAngel Entertainment, is now running the VidAngel filtering business,” Aho said in the 2021 statement. “We purchased the assets from the former VidAngel Inc., which has been rebranded as Angel Studios.”
VidAngel is a video streaming site that, started in 2014, censored movies and TV shows with sex, violence, or distasteful language.
However, in 2016, they were sued for $62.4 million by four movie studios, Disney, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros claiming it broke copyright law.
The service shut down in 2016, relaunched in 2017 without videos from the suing studios, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy shortly after.
In 2020, VidAngel announced they reached a settlement with the studios and had 14 years to pay its $9.9 million fine.
And in 2022, the service launched its “Dirty Dog” advertisement campaign to draw customers back to the site.
“Our commitment to filtering is stronger than ever. And while our company is new, our team is not,” Aho said in the 2021 statement.
Even though content from Disney and Warner Brothers is off-limits to VidAngel, they still offer content from other studios and creators.
“We’re hoping that Disney and its partners have a change of heart,” Aho said in a 2021 statement regarding the lack of Disney content. “In the meantime, can I suggest you try one of our other 2500 movies or 10,000 TV episodes?”
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