Former FCC Commissioner Helps Cumulus’ Case Against Nielsen.

Cumulus Media is getting some help in its antitrust lawsuit against Nielsen. Former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, an economist, has been recruited by the broadcaster’s legal team to help make its case. In a suit filed last week, Cumulus accuses the ratings giant of illegally tying its national and local radio measurement services.

In a declaration filed in federal court, Furchtgott-Roth — who served on the FCC from 1997 to 2001— lays out how he believes Nielsen’s “subscriber first” and “tying” policies exploit its dominance in the national and local radio ratings markets. He alleges Nielsen’s use “harms competition, forecloses potential competitors, and entrenches Nielsen’s market power” in the radio business.

“Nielsen’s recent actions are evidence of the exercise of market power and anticompetitive conduct,” Furchtgott-Roth writes in his analysis. From an economic perspective, he tells the court that the practice of “tying” is considered anticompetitive when it’s used to coerce customers into purchasing a tied product in an otherwise more competitive market.

In this case, Furchtgott-Roth alleges Nielsen’s policy ties the purchase of comprehensive national radio ratings to the purchase of local ratings in each market where Cumulus operates. He contends that this enables Nielsen to exercise greater market power in the market for local radio ratings.

Nielsen’s proposed alternative is that Cumulus can buy the comprehensive national radio ratings at a price almost 10 times what it currently pays isn’t much of a solution either, according to Furchtgott-Roth. He says by charging such a high price, Nielsen knows Cumulus will reject it. “That doesn’t change the economic harms to Cumulus and competition from Nielsen’s conduct,” he says.

Furchtgott-Roth’s testimony gives Cumulus’s claims a high-profile boost from a former federal policymaker. It also echoes long-standing concerns among radio companies that Nielsen’s grip on measurement—bolstered by its 2013 acquisition of Arbitron—has limited competitive alternatives and enabled repeated price hikes.

Rates Climb Higher

Cumulus’ underlying complaint alleges Nielsen’s 2024 policy conditions access to its nationwide ratings on buying local data everywhere it owns stations. It alleges the policy effectively forces broadcasters to pay for “products they neither want nor need,” or risk losing national ratings essential for selling ads through its Westwood One network.

Westwood One President Collin Jones alleges Nielsen has used its market dominance to sharply raise prices and coerce customers. He says that during previous negotiations in 2022, Nielsen hiked the price of its nationwide product by nearly 36%. “There was no change to the product or improvement in its quality in connection with this price hike,” Jones says in a sworn declaration.

The suit also challenges Nielsen’s earlier subscriber-first policy, which requires local stations to subscribe to Nielsen or be excluded from summary-level ratings data that advertisers rely on — a move Cumulus calls another anticompetitive restraint.

Cumulus Media President Dave Milner calls Nielsen’s actions “coercive and punitive,” warning that if left unchecked, they will “cripple” the company’s ability to compete. “Nielsen is leveraging its monopoly position to extract payments for products that stations neither want nor need,” Milner says in a sworn declaration.

Milner says Westwood One depends on the nationwide data to sell ad inventory to major brands and agencies. Without that full dataset, he says, Westwood One’s proposals to advertisers would be incomplete and “unusable,” making it impossible to credibly demonstrate audience reach.

Nielsen denies the allegations, saying the suit is “entirely without merit.”

Cumulus is asking a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction blocking Nielsen from enforcing the policy while its broader antitrust case proceeds. A hearing date has not yet been set.