‘Netflix of the Vatican’: PH among 1st viewers

ROME—A new on-demand service, VatiVision, that has been dubbed the “Netflix of the Vatican,” was due to be launched on Monday in Italy, broadcasting films, series and documentaries with Christian messages, before an eventual rollout to eight other countries.

VatiVision president Luca Tomassini has said that the potential audience for the service could be the “1 billion and 300 million people of Catholic faith,” around the world.

Christian message

The new company is owned by Vetrya, an Italian cloud computing platform for the telecoms industry, and Officina della Communicazione, which produces religious and cultural content for various Vatican institutions.

“The world’s first multidevice platform is born dedicated to the dissemination of cultural, artistic and religious content inspired by the Christian message,” reads the website of VatiVision, whose slogan is “Culture, art and faith, everywhere with you.”

Following the Italian launch, the company plans to progressively roll out the service in the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, the Philippines, Spain and Poland.

At a presentation by VatiVision earlier this week, the Holy See’s top communications officer, Paolo Ruffini, said the company had “understood the importance of offering contents related to Catholic tradition and culture.”