MLBAM Again Asks Nielsen To Cease Web Traffic Reporting

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

MLBAM Makes Third Request For Nielsen Online To Cease Reporting Traffic For MLB.com

MLB Advanced Media, which has been battling with Nielsen Online for months on methodology for determining monthly Web traffic reports, has made a third formal request for the agency to cease reporting traffic for MLB.com. The latest flashpoint was a Wednesday USA Today story that said NFL.com traffic compared favorably to MLB.com traffic, attributing that to Nielsen Online VP Jon Gibs. But MLBAM Senior VP & General Counsel Michael Mellis said in his latest letter to the measurement agency, “Nielsen has no credible basis to make these assertions about MLB.com’s portal traffic. ... If Nielsen did utilize its fundamentally inaccurate traffic information about the MLB.com portal when making these public statements, it was an act of gross irresponsibility.” MLBAM execs have said Nielsen’s monthly panel-based traffic reports have undercounted MLB.com’s traffic, when compared to internal company server logs, by more than a factor of four.