A Game Changer? Cumulus Media Becomes First Broadcaster to Partner with Xperi’s AutoStage Radio Ratings Service

Most Radio Listening Takes Place in the Car, So Shouldn't There Be a Better to Measure Find Out What People are Listening to in Real Time?

Will Other Media Companies Follow Cumulus and Ditch the PPM Ratings Meter?

Cumulus Media, the third largest media company behind iHeartMedia and Audacy, has become the first commercial radio company to sign up for Xperi’s AutoStage Broadcaster Portal Premium, a new audience measurement platform designed to show how people actually listen to radio in their cars. Because most radio listening happens while people are driving, the platform gives broadcasters a much clearer picture of listener habits than traditional audience surveys. Instead of relying mainly on people to remember and report what they listened to, AutoStage uses aggregated data from connected vehicles to provide insights that are available much more quickly and on a much larger scale.

Cumulus, which owns 393 radio stations in 84 U.S. markets, will use the platform across all of its stations. The service tracks listening patterns in nearly real time across 300 local markets, showing information such as which stations people tune into, when they listen, how audiences move between stations, and where listening is strongest. It also includes visual heat maps that help broadcasters and advertisers see where radio audiences are concentrated, making it easier to understand local listening trends.

For advertisers and broadcasters, this data can lead to better decisions. Advertisers can use the insights to plan campaigns that reach the right audiences in the right places, while broadcasters can better understand what programming attracts listeners and adjust their content accordingly. By combining one of the country's largest radio station groups with one of the largest sources of connected-car listening data, Cumulus and Xperi aim to bring a more accurate, data-driven approach to measuring radio audiences, helping modernize the industry and make radio advertising more accountable and effective.

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