When Allyn Morrison was furloughed from her job as a barista at The Perk in Fort Worth, Texas, the 25-year-old actor decided to spend the lockdown streaming shows like Unorthodox and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She wasn’t goofing off, she explained – she was just trying to sharpen her acting skills.
The combination of 30 million Americans out of work and tens of millions more working from home exploded the number of hours people have been glued to a screen. Indeed, streaming jumped by 20% when coronavirus shutdowns first began back in March. And while rates began to fall back to Earth as businesses reopened in June, that shift may soon reverse itself.