How come in the Jordan era they had better TV ratings then now?

[L.Kizzle]

No House Wives of Atlanta or X-Factor to compete with.

[RonArtestsBalls]

Simple.

You had the best player anyone had ever (whether or not people can admit it) seen putting on a nightly show.

You also had a much more physical game and a whole heap of dominant players at every position and on top of that players with real personality.

It was a much more entertaining game and the stars were a lot more likable.

Plus the game wasn't for a bunch of ******* as it seems to be now.

No touch fouls in that decade.

[Rowe]

You had less channels and basically only a handful of people had internet.

Wasn't much else to look at except tuning in to NBC or TNT to watch a basketball game, espescially with an exciting player like Jordan.

[DonDadda59]

Because there hasn't been a player since Jordan who captured people's interest as much as he did. It's pretty simple actually. All those people going on about more channels, internet, etc... How do you explain the ratings drop after Jordan retired following the first and then second threepeats? Were more channels created and the internet invented in '94... then again in '99?

[Myth]

I think that not only are some watching it online, but there is simply easier access to get information about what happened without watching it in its entirety at all. Casual fans may just shrug and say "I can look up the highlights or even catch the final minutes on youtube if I hear the ending was good." The big fans will always be consistent and watch the games live though.

[StarJordan]

Because there are so many more entertainment options on tv these days.

cable tv was already a big deal in 98 as was satellite and by 98 internet dot com boom was there also....yet bulls game 5 in the finals used to pull 20+ ratings....jordan alone was worth about 8-10 rating points in the nba finals...he could outdraw some of the past decade's nba finals just by showing up...he was arguably bigger than the rest of the stars of the nba combined

[Celtics4ever]

Jordan was a legend and he was known all over the world. My family in Italy that didnt even know how basketball was played knew of Jordan. He made Non-Basketball fans watch basketball. We will never get another player like Jordan.

LeBron is a phony. He is not known outside of the US

[Celtics4ever]

Because there hasn't been a player since Jordan who captured people's interest as much as he did. It's pretty simple actually. All those people going on about more channels, internet, etc... How do you explain the ratings drop after Jordan retired following the first and then second threepeats? Were more channels created and the internet invented in '94... then again in '99?

Nice find. A lot of people are too young to know how popular Jordan was. No one really watches basketball anymore.

[ConanRulesNBC]

Why is it that right now the NBA finals TV rating is not even close to the Jordan era? Isn't the NBA getting more popular and well know, so should there be more viewers?

Not here in the U.S.. Internationally, the NBA is getting more popular but here in the U.S. the NBA was way more popular in the '80s and '90s.

[SpecialQue]

Jordan, just like the Beatles, was also an excellent product to sell. Very easy to like and difficult to find flaws with (game wise especially), even if you don't like him.

[madmax]

duh, because it was an era of peak television - no internet to compete with (yet), NBA expanding their broadcasting rights overseas helped immensely too. I still remember how popular NBA was in the mid 90's in Europe - every teenager, who had a TV set at home, was crazy about Jazz, Sonics or Bulls battles. Since 00's, internet has taken over those young teenage minds and left TV in the dust - simple as that

[Sawbucks23]

Michael Jordan brought in so many fans who wouldn't have been fans of the sport. I can't tell you how many guys lost interest in basketball after Jordan retired. The NBA was entering the "hip-hop" era at the time, and many old school fans didn't care for the attitude and dress that was perpetuating through-out the league...add in the high schoolers coming in, and the NBA lost that "professional" appeal.

lol During our time, people who grew up in the 80's and 90's loved basketball mainly because of Jordan. You used to see mulitple pickup games at the local courts. Now, the courts are just empty and you hardly see people play anymore.

[nycelt84]

The reasons had little to do with watching online, the reasons were first Michael Jordan was the greatest draw in basketball history. The finals ratings during the 90's where he did not play dropped off sharply from the series that involved him, and there are many people who stopped watching basketball after his retirement from Chicago. Jordan was a cultural phenomenon who was marketed as the greatest player to ever play the game and a once in a lifetime athlete that you just could not miss.

Another important reason is that NBC did a much better job of marketing and presenting the game then ABC does. Ratings dropped off sharply in just 1 year with the move to ABC. And a lot of people didn't like the younger generation of players such as Allen Iverson and there was a strong image that the NBA was a league full of thugs hence the reason why David Stern implemented a dress code and instituted an even further crackdown on fighting.

[bwink23]

lol During our time, people who grew up in the 80's and 90's loved basketball mainly because of Jordan. You used to see mulitple pickup games at the local courts. Now, the courts are just empty and you hardly see people play anymore.

That is the TRUTH....We used to run game from 6 at night to 11 or 12 every day of the week. There wasn't a day you couldn't get a full court game going. Now, those same courts a barren wasteland.

SAD

[mika]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR7cd_N2LPU ding ding ding