The director of The Chosen has announced a delay to its latest season's digital release, citing legal issues and lack of funding.

Fans will have to wait a little longer for the much-anticipated season four of the hit show, following the life and ministry of Jesus, after Dallas Jenkins announced the delay to streaming on Sunday.

The entire fourth season of the gospel-inspired series has been released in theatres across the US, but this is bad news for those hoping to catch it free online.

In a video posted on social media over the weekend, Jenkins said fans would have to wait "longer than we anticipated or hoped for" to stream it.

Jenkins stated that unspecified "legal matters" needed to be dealt with while reminding viewers that the show is crowdfunded.

"The goal is to have them resolved so that we can, long-term and short-term, better serve you, ensure the show remains free forever and gets to over a billion people, and also allows us to be sustainable forever and for the show to be free forever."

Jenkins emphasised that while some five per cent of viewers give towards the costs of production through the Come and See Foundation, it remains "extremely expensive to be free".

"Without us getting creative and without us figuring out ways to generate incomes so that we can be sustainable and profit, our previous path wasn't proving to be sustainable," Jenkins added.

"We're working all this out right now to be bringing it to you at a discount."

In the interim, season four's theatre release has been extended and will be available to churches and prisons.