Click here to view a 14-minute video of the key takeaways.

Click here to download the NFL listening study for advertisers.

Click here to download NFL listening study for station affiliates.

With the 2025 NFL Draft just completed, marketers and media agencies are eagerly looking ahead to the start of the NFL season on September 4^th, 2025.

Any consideration of an NFL investment should include Westwood One’s exclusive audio play-by-play coverage of approximately 100 primetime games. Westwood One is the exclusive network radio partner to the NFL since 1987, featuring regular and post-season NFL football, including the playoffs and the Super Bowl. All primetime broadcasts will also be available on the newly launched Westwood One Sports app.

Five key benefits of the NFL on Westwood One

Westwood One NFL broadcasts are carried on 700 U.S. radio stations and their streams and simulcast on SiriusXM, the NFL app as well as Google Home and Amazon Alexa. About half of the audience listens via AM/FM radio and half listens via streaming/SiriusXM.

Five key reasons to put the NFL in your media plan:

1. More engaged: The sports listener is more passionate, giving audio commercials greater impact

Across five measures of sports passion, MRI-Simmons reports Westwood One’s NFL audience is far more sports engaged than the NFL TV audience.

2. Mass reach: Buy deep in a game and long in the season to capture the massive 64 million reach

A Nielsen Portable Meter listening analysis reveals NFL on Westwood One is a reach-accumulation machine. Across the season, 64 million Americans are reached by Westwood One’s play-by-play broadcasts.

3. Closest to the point of purchase: Reach busy on-the-go people whose “best available screen” is their in-car AM/FM radio

80%+ of NFL Westwood One audience is reached in-car.

4. Desirable consumers: Reach a young, employed, and upscale audience with greater spending power

5. Makes your TV better: The NFL on Westwood One is an effective way to amplify reach and frequency of an NFL TV campaign

10 measurement case studies: The NFL on Westwood One

The Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® is a leader in measuring audio advertising effectiveness. Through partnerships with best-of-breed advertiser effectiveness measurement firms, the Audio Active Group® can quantify the brand lift, sales effect, and search and site attribution of audio investments.

These ten case studies represent a diverse mix of categories:

• CDW, a B2B brand targeting IT decision makers
• An online sports betting brand
• Motorcycle brand
• Mobile app
• Major quick service restaurant
• Major retailer
• Telecom brand
• Prescription discount subscription service
• Two financial service firms

A number of these case studies are from the just-completed 2024/2025 season.

Case Study #1: Mid-tier financial brand drives stronger brand effect on Westwood One’s NFL than with their TV investments

The Harris Poll Brand Tracker reveals the financial brand has stronger awareness, familiarity, consideration, and equity among the NFL Westwood One audience versus the overall TV audience. This is despite significant TV media investment.

Case study #2: Another financial services brand generates strong brand equity with the NFL on Westwood One and Infinity Sports updates

Compared to those not exposed, familiarity, awareness, favorability, and use intent were much stronger among those exposed.

Case study #3: A prescription discount subscription service saw strong top funnel and middle funnel performance from their Westwood One NFL campaign

Case study #4: A telecom brand’s Westwood One NFL campaign generated strong lifts in familiarity, consideration, and actions taken

Case study #5: CDW, a major B2B brand targeting IT decision makers, experienced lifts in awareness, brand perceptions, and likelihood to recommend due to their NFL campaign on Westwood One

Over the course of six years, CDW measured their Westwood One NFL campaigns using a wide variety of approaches.

Case study #6: Listeners to Westwood One’s NFL are much more likely to be aware of and familiar with an online sports betting brand and more likely to consider it in the future

In a study conducted by Nielsen for a major online sports betting brand, Westwood One’s NFL listeners we more likely to be aware of and familiar with the brand. They are also more likely to consider using it in the future versus those who were unexposed.

Case study #7: A Nielsen analysis of a major QSR brand’s Westwood One NFL campaign revealed a stunning 53% lift in incremental reach and a 20% increase in frequency among light NFL TV viewers at a fraction of TV CPMs

Case study #8: A major motorcycle brand’s integration in the NFL on Westwood One lifted ad recall, grew brands images, and elevated ad recall of all media elements in the plan

Case study #9: A major mobile app’s Westwood One NFL campaign lifted top, middle, and lower funnel measures; Live reads from the play-by-play talent outperformed pre-recorded ads in favorability

Case study #10: A retailer’s sponsorship of the Westwood One NFL audio stream measured by Upwave grew awareness, ad recall, consideration, and familiarity

Across the ten case studies, the integration with Westwood One’s NFL play-by-play broadcasts universally lift brand equity, generate incremental reach, and drive purchase consideration and intent. This strong performance is due to a highly engaged mass reach audience, which is closest to the point of purchase. The NFL on Westwood One attracts a desirable consumer profile, which makes an NFL TV investment better.

Key takeaways:

• More engaged: The sports listener is more passionate, giving audio commercials greater impact
• Mass reach: Buy deep in a game and long in the season to capture the massive 64 million reach
• Closest to the point of purchase: Reach busy on-the-go people whose “best available screen” is their in-car AM/FM radio
• Desirable consumers: Reach a young, employed, and upscale audience with greater spending power
• Makes your TV better: The NFL on Westwood One is an effective way to amplify reach and frequency of an NFL TV campaign

Click here to view a 14-minute video of the key takeaways.

View or download the 2025 NFL Listening Report for advertisers:

View or download the 2025 NFL Listening Report for affiliates:

Pierre Bouvard is Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group^®.

Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.