UK Families Experiences of Film and TV during COVID and Beyond

Due to government restrictions, cinemas were closed in March 2020 and this rapidly accelerated the advancing trend of moving-image consumption taking place online (Gupta & Singharia 2021). Living under lockdown conditions and with the majority of British people [and many worldwide] having no option to watch movies other than within the home, the movie industry was unable to release its films through the normal theatrical channels (Sterritt 2020), leading to a significant pause in global production and distribution of movies (Stolworthy 2020; Ritman & Szalai 2021). British families surveyed as part of the British Families in Lockdown study, found themselves often watching film and TV that had been released before the pandemic. Some would look for cinematic entertainment by revisiting their personal DVD or Blu-Ray collections, however the majority made use of online services to access content. As a combined result, usage of online platforms and streaming services increased (Sweeney 2020).