Despite lacklustre attendance numbers at the Noordlease Stadium, FC Groningen does considerably better on television.
The Groninger Internet Courant reports that FC Groningen has the fifth highest viewership during live match broadcasts on FOX Sports. On average, 156,719 viewers tune in to the premium television station when the Groningen football team is playing.
The clubs with the most viewers are the traditional eredivise teams Ajax (426,000), Feyenoord (423,000) and PSV (312,000), and the recently downgraded FC Twente (158,000).
Groningen’s matches have higher viewership than AZ, FC Utrecht and PEC Zwolle, all of whom have better records than FC Groningen. SC Heerenveen from Friesland came in 13th place in terms of television viewership with 115,000 viewers.
A bigger television audience does not have any financial impact on the teams: money earned through premium channel is distributed among the clubs based on their performance in the past ten seasons.
