Judge Presses Nielsen About Cumulus Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

A U.S. district judge pressed Nielsen on how Cumulus Media’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy should affect the companies’ fight over national radio ratings, as she weighed whether Nielsen is complying with an antitrust injunction that bars it from charging a commercially unreasonable standalone price. 

U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the Southern District of New York convened an evidentiary hearing on Cumulus’s motion to enforce her December 30, 2025, preliminary injunction. The order blocks Nielsen from enforcing its “Network Policy,” which ties access to complete Nationwide ratings to purchases of local ratings, and from pricing the Nationwide report as a standalone product at a commercially unreasonable rate. 

A rate at or below the highest 2026 Nationwide price Nielsen charges any other broadcaster is treated as presumptively reasonable. The hearing arrives as Cumulus’s current access to Nationwide is set to lapse around Sept. 10. Nielsen told the court it considered extending that access through the end of September but concluded an extension is not “commercially practicable.” 

Vargas ordered Nielsen to submit a sealed declaration explaining that claim and to produce pricing data covering 2024 through 2026, not just the current year. Nielsen has argued that Cumulus’s March Chapter 11 filing undercuts the broadcaster’s claim of irreparable harm and should limit or reshape injunctive relief. 

The Second Circuit rejected the idea that the bankruptcy automatically froze the injunction appeal, holding that the automatic stay applies to Nielsen’s counterclaims against Cumulus, not to Cumulus’s own antitrust claims. The appeals court affirmed Vargas’s injunction in July and issued its mandate in late August, returning the enforcement fight to her courtroom. Cumulus, which owns hundreds of stations and the Westwood One network, sued Nielsen in October 2025, alleging the ratings firm used monopoly power over national audience data to coerce purchases of local data Cumulus did not want. 

After a three-day hearing, Vargas found a likelihood of success on a constructive-tying theory after Nielsen offered a standalone Nationwide price the court described as so high as to be economically unfeasible. Nielsen won a stay pending appeal in February; that stay later fell. 

Cumulus filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 case in the Southern District of Texas in March. A Houston bankruptcy judge confirmed a plan in April that would cut hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and hand control to lenders, subject to FCC approval. 

Cumulus has said Nielsen’s pricing policy contributed to the restructuring. Nielsen is listed as a disputed creditor and has accused Cumulus of sharing ratings data with competitor Eastlan; those counterclaims remain stayed. The immediate question before Vargas is narrower than the full antitrust case: whether Nielsen’s latest standalone offer and refusal to extend access violate the injunction while Cumulus is still in bankruptcy and Westwood One’s national ad sales depend on Nationwide data. 

A ruling on enforcement could decide whether Cumulus keeps the ratings product past mid-September or loses it while the underlying lawsuit continues.