Cumulus Media has signed on as the first commercial licensee and launch partner for AutoStage Broadcaster Portal Premium, Xperi’s radio audience analytics platform.
It is a notable expansion of the role that DTS AutoStage plays in the industry, with Xperi actively pushing for its platform to play a more central role in how radio companies estimate their actual impact on audiences.
Xperi and Cumulus announced the agreement Wednesday. The AutoStage Radio Audience measurement service is designed to track in-car radio consumption by providing near-real-time, aggregated data on listener behavior.
Cumulus plans to deploy the premium portal across all its local markets to increase visibility into passenger listening habits and update its audience metrics, according to a release. It operates approximately 393 stations in 84 markets.
The Xperi Broadcaster Portal Premium platform offers next-day sample data, observed audience behavior and market-level consumption trends. According to the companies, these metrics will allow for more precise advertisement campaign planning and better alignment with in-car listening trends.
“This agreement with Cumulus marks a major step toward deterministic measurement in broadcast radio,” said Joe D’Angelo, senior VP of commercial strategy and partnerships at Xperi, in the release.
Bob Walker, president of operations at Cumulus Media, called the partnership a milestone in bringing new audience insights to the industry. He specifically highlighted the platform’s heat maps, which display where listening is concentrated relative to advertiser locations.
The DTS AutoStage connected car platform is integrated into approximately 16 million vehicles. Key analytics provided by the portal include share-of-listening, audience flow, geographic patterns, market-level reach and station rankings by daypart.
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