In a dramatic and spiritually powerful turn of events, a Christian streaming service called Pure Flix has ascended to higher heights with a remarkable surge in membership as woke streaming giant Netflix faces a decline in viewership, showing a growing desire among conservative, Christian viewers for wholesome and faith-based entertainment.
Christian Headlines, reporting on the success of Pure Flix, said:
The Christian streaming service Pure Flix has more than doubled its membership in the past two years, even as mainstream services such as Netflix and Disney Plus have lost members, according to new data from company executives who attribute the growth to society’s need for hope-filled content.
Pure Flix, at PureFlix.com, was launched in 2015 as a faith-based alternative to Netflix and is home to such titles as The Case for Christ, War Room, The Most Reluctant Convert and A Thousand Tomorrows, which was co-written and co-produced by Karen Kingsbury. Children’s content includes Veggie Tales and The Adventures of Paddington Bear.
Pure Flix describes its mission as being “To select media that strengthens your faith and values, is wholesome, and suitable for the entire family and streamed seamlessly on any device.” Continuing, it adds, “Let’s inspire together as a transformational voice in our culture. As a Pure Flix member, you can have faith that your entertainment is free from uncomfortable surprises for you, your family and your community.”
And as Pure Flix does better and better, streaming giants with secular, if not anti-religious, content have faced rocky shoals. For example, Netflix reported a loss of 1 million subscribers during the first half of 2022. Similarly, Disney Plus reported losing 2.4 million members during the last quarter of 2022.
Netflix suffered a decline in 2023 as well, with “Insider Intelligence” reporting, “Netflix will lose viewers for the second consecutive year in 2023, according to our new forecast update. The number of viewers is expected to decrease by 0.5% to 170.6 million.”
Linda Blazy, the chief content officer at Pure Flix, attributed the success of the site to people needing hope in dark times, saying, “When people got locked down for three years … they needed to search to find a place for hope and inspiration. And fortunately, we were there.”
Continuing, she added that one possible reason for the streaming service’s success is that Pure Flix has added better and better content to its content library, saying, “I believe that over the last two years, what we’ve really done is increased the quality of the storytelling. And we have increased also the quantity of content. We’ve also expanded our genres. … We have really looked at what our members want.”
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She also noted that, in comparison to other streaming services with shockingly vulgar content, Pure Flix is, for families, “a safe place and you’re not going to hear language.”