Lawyers for Cumulus Media and Nielsen are due in court today as the broadcaster’s high stakes legal battle with the measurement giant continues to unfold. The action gets underway at 2pm in U.S. District Court in Lower Manhattan where both parties will argue their case before Judge Jeannette A. Vargas. Before breaking for the Thanksgiving holiday, Texas-based Nielsen attorney Scott Hvidt, partner at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, filed an extensive response to Cumulus Media’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Nielsen’s controversial “tying” policy. The broadcaster argues this new policy is anticompetitive.

Nielsen’s Nov. 25 data dump includes 34 exhibits, spread across 241 pages, much of it redacted. The exhibits provide clues about how Nielsen may make its case today to the court. Among the documents Nielsen filed is an Oct. 30 Cumulus press release touting its market share gains and outperformance during the third quarter, including a 34% increase in digital revenue. Nielsen will presumably contrast this – along with a transcript of the radio group/network’s Oct. 30 earnings call, a Form 10-Q filing and various financial ratings reports – with how Cumulus portrayed its financial position in a court filing. In a legal brief last month, the radio company noted its stock is trading at “around ten cents,” its debt is “highly distressed,” and the amount of that “massive” debt — $876 million — is almost 500-times its market capitalization. “Cumulus’s cash flow is negative, meaning it is losing money,” the broadcaster added.

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