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).

受政府管制措施影响，全球影院于2020年3月陆续关停，这一事件极大加速了影像消费向线上迁移的发展趋势（Gupta & Singharia, 2021）。在封锁管控期间，绝大多数英国民众（以及全球众多地区的民众）只能居家观影，电影行业无法通过常规院线渠道发行影片（Sterritt, 2020），进而导致全球电影制作与发行陷入显著停滞（Stolworthy, 2020; Ritman & Szalai, 2021）。作为《英国封锁期家庭》（British Families in Lockdown）研究的受访对象，英国家庭日常多选择观看疫情前已发行的影视内容。部分家庭会通过重温个人DVD或蓝光（Blu-Ray）影碟库来获取影视娱乐，但绝大多数家庭转而借助在线服务平台获取影视内容。多重因素叠加之下，在线平台与流媒体服务（streaming services）的使用量大幅攀升（Sweeney, 2020）。