Cumulus Media has taken legal action against Nielsen, alleging the company engaged in anticompetitive practices that inflated the cost of radio ratings data and limited market access for competitors, Reuters reports. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday (Oct. 16), the suit claims Nielsen conditioned access to national broadcast radio analytics on the purchase of separate local ratings, a move Cumulus says violates federal and state antitrust laws.
The lawsuit, brought by Hogan Lovells on behalf of Cumulus Media New Holdings, specifically cites a 36% increase in Westwood One’s national ratings data in 2022, along with consistent subsequent price hikes tied to Nielsen’s new “tying policy.”
In the suit, Cumulus says that in September 2024, Nielsen “announced a new policy to illegally maintain its market power in both the National Radio Ratings Data Market and the Local Radio Ratings Data Markets (the “Tying Policy”). Specifically, Nielsen announced that if a national network owns, manages, operates, or has a sales or operating agreement or similar business relationship with local radio stations (a “shared-ownership local radio station”), Nielsen would exclude from the national radio ratings data purchased by the national network any geographies where the shared-ownership local radio stations do not purchase Nielsen’s local radio ratings data.”
Cumulus also cites a phone call in July with Rich Tunkel, Managing Director for Nielsen Audio, who said “a national radio ratings data product without these geographies would be ‘Swiss cheese,’ and ‘have holes.’ Mr. Tunkel admitted that any product without comprehensive Nationwide ratings would not be the ‘real’ or a ‘useful’ product. Tunkel also agreed that Nielsen was tying Nielsen’s local radio ratings data and Nationwide products together,” the suit read.
Cumulus owns nearly 400 stations across more than 80 U.S. markets, while Westwood One produces national programming and serves as the official network audio broadcast partner of the NFL.
According to the complaint, Nielsen’s policies force networks and stations to buy local ratings in markets where they aren’t needed, effectively limiting access to national data. Cumulus claims this conduct has degraded product quality, blocked competitors from gaining a foothold, and harmed hundreds of millions of dollars in commerce. The company warned that continued practices could lead to inflated costs, reduced choice, and diminished innovation for advertisers and stations.
In response, Nielsen said the lawsuit is “entirely without merit” and pledged to respond accordingly. Cumulus called the legal action a challenge to “anticompetitive conduct that we believe is unlawful and damaging” and is seeking unspecified monetary damages along with a court order to halt Nielsen’s allegedly unfair practices.