The ‘majority of the country’ wants more family-friendly, faith-based entertainment, media executive says

In June, Great American Media and Pure Flix merged. After the merge, Pure Flix became known as Great American Pure Flix.

Great American Media is a portfolio of brands, including Great American Family, known for family-friendly and faith-based movies, and Pure Flix is a Christian streaming service.

The mission of Great American Pure Flix is to deliver faith-based and family-friendly content.

As the two companies came together, Bill Abbott, president and CEO of Great American Media, talked to the Deseret News about the kind of content Great American Pure Flix will produce and how he believes it will be different than the traditional Hollywood landscape.

“In the entertainment world, faith and family are treated more negatively rather than positively,” Abbott told me.

The starting point for Great American Pure Flix is to be “supportive of faith and family.” “It starts there. And then from there, it’s telling stories where people are encouraged: they’re uplifted, they feel good about their family, they feel good about their faith, they can have something that helps them through challenging times.”

As part of trying to achieve these goals, Great American Media announced several new Christmas movies, including “A Christmas Commission,” “Mistletoe Moments” and “My Christmas Hero.”

“As we think about the meaning of the Christmas season or as we think about Easter, those are the times when faith and family can really come to the forefront,” Abbott said.

Abbott believes the “majority of the country” yearns for this kind of content.

“I think that people are gravitating toward” faith and family content because “the entertainment industry has gone so far off the rails and racing to the gutter that the reaction is” people are looking for content “that doesn’t assault their senses,” he said.

While making faith and family content, Abbott said he’s sensitive toward balancing message with the production value.

“We want high level of talent that also shares our values and shares the faith message and can elevate the entire production,” he said. “So it’s a blend, it’s a fine line.”

He said that some people criticize faith-based content for veering toward sharing a message at the expense of the production value. He said that he believes some of those criticisms are fair, but others are not.

“We’re not trying to preach. We’re not trying to convert people. We’re not trying to do things that are unexpected,” Abbott told me. “We just want to be supportive of what we believe the majority of the country feels in terms of family values and faith and be positive and uplifting.”

As for how Abbott would like to see the entertainment world change, he’d like to see a “less abrasive” and a “less harsh” world. There’s so much “that is not worthy of people’s time and certainly not worthy of influencing the kids in our world or society.”

“So I’d love to see more outlets like ours that are high quality that give people the experience of really being entertained,” Abbott said. “And at the same time where they can feel good about their lives, their values and they’re not faced with being demeaned or portrayed negatively.”