MLBAM Asks Nielsen To Halt Reporting Traffic Numbers

MLBAM has requested that Nielsen/Net Ratings stop reporting the site’s monthly traffic counts, heightening tensions over the unsettled state of Internet metrics that have built up for more than three years. In a letter sent late last week to the Internet measurement outfit, MLBAM General Counsel Michael Mellis writes, “Because your reports about MLB.com portal traffic continue to be significantly understated, we continue to be damaged, including without limitation, in our dealings with advertisers ... the better course would be for Nielsen to refrain from issuing traffic information about our portal until it can do so in a reasonably accurate manner.” Nielsen reported MLB.com posted traffic of 12.78 million unique visitors during August '07, but MLBAM execs say their internal server count points to more than 61 million visitors. MLBAM CEO Bob Bowman: “The differences [in the monthly reports] keep widening, and the problem is only getting worse."