On Thursday Xperi’s DTS and Cumulus Media jointly announced the integration of all 415 Cumulus radio stations into the DTS AutoStage connected car infotainment platform.
DTS AutoStage is a global hybrid radio platform in 60 countries and coming to market in the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The platform is open to all broadcasters at no cost. Other broadcasters on the platform include Audacy, Beasley and Cox.
“DTS AutoStage is helping elevate radio into the connected car future, while enabling our radio stations to benefit from economies of scale and service simplification,” said Conrad Trautmann, Senior Vice President, Technology, Cumulus Media. “DTS AutoStage’s user interface provides our listeners with the most cutting-edge features in the dashboard of any automobile, and now Cumulus Media’s radio stations can take advantage of them all. The hybrid radio functionality Xperi has built into the DTS AutoStage platform allows our listeners to always hear our programming seamlessly, whether they are receiving us over the air or via our station streams. This essentially makes the coverage area of our radio station’s signals limitless.”
Cumulus’ radio stations’ metadata will be represented in the DTS AutoStage in-vehicle infotainment ecosystem, which increases consumer content engagement with big artwork, artist and album information and imagery, songs, playlists and station logos.
The DTS AutoStage platform also enables continued station listening from local broadcast stations via streams when the vehicle drives out of broadcast range and all stations will be able to manage their services, station information and streams in one place.
“We are so pleased to be able to visually enhance the listening and discovery experience of Cumulus Media’s robust portfolio of content through DTS AutoStage’s dashboard of the future,” said Joe D’Angelo, Xperi senior vice president, business development, broadcast. “This is a win for vehicle owners, the majority of whom want radio as the anchor of their media diet1, as they will have access to Cumulus Media’s fantastic content through our visually-rich, immersive, in-vehicle listening experience. And it is a big win for broadcasters, who gain easy and rapid content integration and management that ensures security, reliability and editorial control.”
