Anyone try Formed?

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Netflix seemed limited in good Christian movies so I went in search of Christian version of Netflix. I found that there is a Christian version of Netflix but also a Catholic site called Formed. I was wondering if anyone has tried these movie sites and how they like them?
 
Our parish just joined Formed. I do like it a lot. There is a lot of Catholic content such as the Symbolon series, Beloved (a marriage series), and some movies.

I would not call it a Catholic Netflix as there are not a lot of movies on it, other than a handful of Ignatius Press saint movies.
 
I checked out their website a couple of months ago (it’s not just for parishes, but for individuals too). But they only had a dozen movies! That seemed kind of wimpy. But outside of that they do have lots of good talks, teaching materials, etc.

I then joined Pius Media (www.piusmedia.com) and so far I really enjoy it. If you’re an individual looking for a “Catholic Netflix” then I would recommend this one instead of Formed.
 
My parish is also on Formed. I think it is great and has great potential as well. It’s a collaboration between Ignatius Press, Lighthouse Catholic Media, and the Augustine Institute.

One thing to note, Formed just launched about 3 months ago. They already have lots of great programs (like Symbolon, the Catholicism series, etc.), but only a few movies. They also have audio stuff and even some ebooks. But more is getting added and will be added in the future. So I think the best is yet to come.

I wish they had an app, though. I also wish they could get Ascension Press in on the partnership, which would expand their program catalog a lot. But Ascension Press has their own streaming service (evangelization.com) which makes streaming of their programs available (for a subscription fee) for parishes and people who have already purchased the physical DVDs of those programs. So I’d be surprised to see it happen in the near future. But I hold out hope that they’ll get there.

If you go to Formed.org, you can see the listing of what is available. I see nearly 40 programs (many of which consist of 10 or more parts), a dozen movies, 40+ audio talks, and about 20 ebooks. Obviously, the more content the better, but it is still a good start. I would like to see more movies, though. Ignatius offers a lot of DVDs for sale on their site, but I’m sure that licensing them digitally is a whole other set of contracts. I’d imagine they need to see how things go for a bit first.
 
I’m our parish administrator for Formed.org, and the comments here seem fair. The content there is very, very good, but it’s limited right now. I will say that they are very regularly adding new content, so I don’t think it will take long for them to realize their full potential.

The primary criticism I have for this and other similar services is that it’s difficult to get the content on my TV. I don’t really want to watch things on my computer or phone… I just figured out how to use the browser on my smart TV to make this work finally, but it’s very clunky, and not user friendly like Netflix.
 
Intransivert said:
I’m our parish administrator for Formed.org, and the comments here seem fair. The content there is very, very good, but it’s limited right now. I will say that they are very regularly adding new content, so I don’t think it will take long for them to realize their full potential.

The primary criticism I have for this and other similar services is that it’s difficult to get the content on my TV. I don’t really want to watch things on my computer or phone… I just figured out how to use the browser on my smart TV to make this work finally, but it’s very clunky, and not user friendly like Netflix.
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Right. I think it would be very beneficial for them to spend some time in developing apps: apps for smart phones, tablets, Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV Stick, smart TV apps, etc.

I’m sure it’s a lot of work to develop user-friendly interface for such a wide variety of constantly-changing platforms. So it is a lot to ask of them considering their current size. But I think it is crucial to do in the future for making it easy to use for many more people. If you want the average person in the pew to actually look at the stuff, you have to make it as easy as possible for them to locate it and watch it on their preferred device.
 
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