In 2018, the ARF established the L.A. Council to deal with the challenges of the LA community that may not have received enough attention in the overall marketing ecosystem. The Council consists of researchers at media companies who have formed Working Groups to address the issues they consider most pressing. Of particular importance are changes in viewers’ behaviors and attitudes, including their preferences for using various platforms, navigation among platforms and content discovery.
In order to gain insights on these topics, Council members sponsored new research and additional analyses of data from syndicated surveys by Hub Entertainment Research. Key findings were presented at a Council meeting in LA on Nov 12, 2019.
One such insight, the assumption that large portions of viewers have abandoned “traditional” content sources in favor of streaming appears to be a myth: overwhelmingly viewers use both, traditional and new sources. 
The study assessed initial awareness of the new streaming services offered by Disney, Apple, AT&T and NBC. Hub Research will explore how these findings change over time, after the promotion of new services has kicked in. These baseline findings indicate that awareness is mixed and also that it depends on demographic characteristics and attitudes regarding streaming and interest in viewing content. 
The discussion of the findings resulted in Council members suggesting additional analyses of the rich data set, to gain more insights regarding viewer groups of special interest, ranging from Millennials and families with children to viewers who are fans of reality shows. Also, the Council plans to continue this research. Of particular interest are changes in awareness of the new streaming services and how viewers decide which to purchase.