The Jupiler Pro League, the Belgian D1 football championship, broke a new audience record last weekend. No less than 844,000 viewers watched the Eleven Pro League channels. The upward trend, which has been noticeable since the beginning of the season, continues, the Pro League said on Thursday, despite the return of spectators to the stadiums.
"Super Sunday" lived up to its name last Sunday, where Club Brugge-Standard attracted 370,526 viewers, and 432,783 watched Antwerp-Anderlecht, the Belga News Agency reports.
The most-watched match of the season was Anderlecht-Union on 25 July, played on the first day of the season. It attracted 441,315 viewers. Last season Club Brugge-Anderlecht on 2 May, on the first day of the Champions Play-Offs, was the most popular match with 562,168 viewers.
After more than a third of the competition, the average viewers per weekend on the Pro League channels is 746,000 viewers. Last season, this number was 671,000 during the regular season, an increase of about 11%. The average number of viewers per regular league game has increased from 215,104 last season to 248,456 this season.
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"It is remarkable that now that fans can go to the stadium again, the number of viewers continues to increase. This indicates that the interest of the Belgian football fan in Belgian football has not decreased but is, on the contrary, increasing. In a period where clubs are under great pressure, this is a very positive sign", said Guillaume Collard, general manager of Eleven Sports Belgium.
In D1B, too, the audience figures are up compared to last season. In 20-21, there was an average of 43,375 viewers per game. This season that number has increased by more than 40% to 63,386 viewers.
