Walmart-Owned Streaming Service Introduces Movie Filtering Option for Families

Walmart-owned Vudu began offering filtered streaming movies this month of more than 600 titles, allowing families to watch major films like the Marvel series without the coarse language, sexuality or excessive violence.

The announcement by Vudu came six months after a judge ruled that another streaming company – VidAngel – had violated copyright law. Although VidAngel remains in business, the judge’s ruling limits what content it can filter.

The Vudu feature, called Family Play, gives families the option of cutting out sexuality, nudity, violence, language and substance abuse. It is powered by Clearplay, a company that has been offering technology to filter movies for more than a decade.  

Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, said he was “thrilled” by Vudu’s announcement. Walmart’s involvement, he said, gives the Vudu service staying power.

“Over the past two decades, Disney and some of the other studios have sued about 14 different technology providers, either into bankruptcy or to the brink of bankruptcy, and shut down most of them,” Winter told Christian Headlines. “But now Walmart is stepping in. It understands that there is a vast marketplace in America for this type of service. It’s going to be tough for the studios to squash Walmart like a bug – as they’ve been able to successfully do to these startup…