Chick-fil-A will launch a “family-friendly” streaming platform

Chick-fil-A, the fast food chain known as much for the conservative Christianity of its founder that has guided the company’s corporate culture as it is for its fried chicken sandwiches, is reportedly preparing to launch a “family-friendly” streaming platform before the end of the year.

Deadline first reported last week that the company is “moving aggressively into the entertainment space.” According to the outlet, Chick-fil-A intends to launch a streaming platform later this year with a slate of original programming and is also in talks to license existing content.

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Among the major production companies that Chick-fil-A has reportedly been working with to develop original shows are Glassman Media, which produces the NBC gameshow The Wall, and Sugar23, founded by Michael Sugar, an executive producer on Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, Cinemax’s The Knick, and the Academy Award-winning film Spotlight. The focus, according to Deadline, will be on unscripted series, with Glassman Media reportedly working on a “family-friendly” game show. However, the outlet reports that there is also talk of developing scripted and animated shows.

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Chick-fil-A’s stated “Corporate Purpose” is “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us” and “to have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.” The company has long been a favorite of conservatives and evangelical Christians, in part for its refusal to operate on Sundays. It has also come under fire over the past decade for its donations to extreme anti-LGBTQ+ organizations.

After reports first emerged in late 2011 of the Chick-fil-A Foundation’s millions of dollars in donations to anti-LGBTQ+ groups that promote, among other things, so-called “conversion therapy,” then-company president Dan Cathy said in 2012 that the company was “guilty as charged.”

“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said at the time.

“We intend to stay the course,” he added. “We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”

Following public backlash, the company said it would stop funding organizations with “political agendas.” But tax documents released in 2019 showed that the Chick-fil-A Foundation had, in fact, continued to donate to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations — around $1.8 million in 2017 alone. The company once again promised to do better, but a 2021 report found that Cathy had continued to use his company’s profits, albeit as a private citizen, to fund hate groups that lobbied for anti-transgender legislation across the country and campaigned to stop the Equality Act from becoming law.

It remains unclear what Chick-fil-A’s streaming content may ultimately look like, but as one X user speculated: “chick fil a [sic] can only be starting a streaming platform for religious propaganda.”

chick fil a can only be starting a streaming platform for religious propaganda. they’re gonna get 7th heaven reruns day ONE

— donut 🍩 (@speckops) August 22, 2024

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