Nemanja Simeunovic, regional director of Sport Klub - Sport is a serious business

(Nemanja Simeunovic)

Spain's La Liga (Primera Division) arrives on Sport Klub next year. In addition to Primera, this popular cable channel will also be showing Segunda Division matches, thus increasing the number of football leagues whose matches it broadcasts to 14, Nemanja Simeunovic, regional director of Sport Klub, announces for eKapija.

He adds that Sport Klub will continue to focus on the best football and the best sports in general.

- I can freely say that Sport Klub has the largest number of viewers of all televisions and TV channels in former Yugoslavia. National TV stations are the most popular in their respective countries, but they are not popular in other countries. We have achieved that by making our program interesting to people living in this region. Besides, although we have little television experience, the people we employ are top sports experts with a comprehensive knowledge of sports techniques. We offer our audience live broadcasts of the greatest sports events on the planet, covered by local commentators - says our intelocutor.

Sport Klub in Serbia was formed in 2006 to cover the countries of former SFRY. Its offer includes several channels - Sport Klub, Sport Klub Plus, SK Prime, Golf Klub, whereas Sport Klub 3, 4 and 5 have been launched recently.

- Sport Klub 3, 4 and 5 will focus on the Premier League, enabling our viewers not to miss anything when several games are broadcast at the same time.

Sport Klub will also broadcast Euroleague Basketball games. When needed, the viewers will be able to watch other interesting leagues and competitions, primarily tennis tournaments, on channels 3, 4 and 5.

- People in former SFRY love sports more than people living in other regions do. In other markets where Sport Klub is present, such as Romania, Hungary, Poland, people watch only the games played by their athletes. On the territory of ex-SFRY, people appreciate and love sports in general. The biggest interest is expressed by the viewers in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro, and the most popular sports are tennis, football and basketball - Simeunovic explains.

In order to satisfy the wishes and habits of its viewers, Sport Klub has three feeds - one for Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro, one for Croatia, and one for Slovenia.

- That makes it possible for us to offer our viewers in Slovenia the coverage of, for example, snowboarding events, which is not that popular in Serbia.

Sport Klub has been growing together with Novak Djokovic and broadcasting tennis matches since 2006. It now covers over 55 tennis tournaments a year.

- There is enough space to develop our channels. We have launched two new forms that separate us from a channel and bring us closer to a television. We are now making studio shows, which have proved to be a highly successful form because people love to hear opinions, analyses and forecasts before a sports match. We have also started bringing news to our viewers, which is among the most difficult things to do.

He also points out that great hopes are placed in SK Prime, which covers Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro and focuses on two extremely important segments - Formula 1 and Moto GP.

Nemanja Simeunovic entered the world of sports journalism thanks to people he spent time with as a kid.

- I was lucky to grow surrounded by journalists. Since my father is Miodrag Simeunovic, journalist and former editor of Sportski Zurnal daily, my only wish was to engage in the same profession. I took my first business steps in that field. At the urging of Vojin Partonic, the first editor of Politika daily after 5 October 2000, I started working for that newspaper when I was 18.

Simeunovic says he has never thought of running a sports channel, but he admits he wished for such form to exist in Serbia.

M.K.