A few days ago, Tomasz Smokowski announced that he was saying goodbye to Channel Sportowy. – I decided that it was the best time to take a longer break. Maybe for good, maybe not – that remains to be seen. I believe that it is better to say thank you and bow down a day earlier than a year later, he explained.
Less than a year ago, Krzysztof Stanowski left the channel and a few months later founded Kanał Zero. Of the four original founders of Channel Sportowy, only two leaders remain on the team today: Michał Pol and Mateusz Borek. How do experts assess Smokowski’s decision and what’s next for the YouTube project?
Smokowski Leaves
– The Sports Channel was a success because the entire project was signed with the faces of four recognized media personalities. If any of them had tried to organize such a channel alone a few years ago, they would not have been able to gather an audience like KS in the first months of operation. The departure of Tomasz Smokowski is a significant image loss, especially since after breaking with Canal+ he was associated by viewers only with KS. This is a different case from, for example, Wojciech Kowalczyk, undoubtedly a media personality who appeared in the programs of Channel Sportowy, Wesło and Channel Zero – says Adam Pawlukiewcz from Pentagon Research in an interview with Wirtualnemedia.pl.
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Tomasz Smokowski has been associated with Channel Sportowy since the project’s launch in early 2020. Previously, he worked at Polsat for several years and was associated with the sports editorial team at Canal+ for many years, including: as director and presenter of “Liga+ Extra”. It was thanks to this program, which he produced together with Andrzej Twarowski, that he became the most recognized. At Sport Channel, Smokowski mainly presented programs about football, tennis and interviews with pop culture stars.
It is not known at this time whether Smokowski’s resignation also means that he is getting rid of his shares in the project. He is one of the co-owners of Channel Sportowy, alongside Mateusz Borek, Michał Pol and Maciej Wandzel, who replaced Krzysztof Stanowski.
They will be looking for new faces
Will there be a big name or names in journalism to replace Tomasz Smokowski? – Following the departure of Krzysztof Stanowski, Kanal Sportowy was looking for a fourth permanent sports journalism figure to replace him. However, it was not easy to find the right person on the market, with a large reach and interested in joining. Now it will be even more difficult, because instead of the original four main creators, there are two left. I see that they are trying to act differently for now – they are looking for big names to appear in individual and sponsored programs, such as Jerzy Dudek or Sławomir Peszko. There was also an attempt at stronger cooperation with Dariusz Szpakowski, but later he also started appearing on Channel Zero – said Kacper Sosnowski from the Sport.pl portal in an interview with Wirtualnemedia.pl.
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Dudek and Peszko appear in the continuing format of “Winger, Goalkeeper and Connector”, which has been renamed “Bajerka o footballu”. Mateusz Borek, who replaced Tomasz Smokowski, recently became the host.
Sosnowski admits: “According to my information, Channel Sportowy will again be looking for new people, probably also a big name. It is not easy to find someone with Smokowski’s status. Perhaps the current situation – two vocalists and the rest of the band, plus specialists in specific programs – will prove to be the final solution. It’s been that way since August, when Smokowski disappeared from the air.
Challenges faced by the Sports Channel
After the decline resulting from Stanowski’s departure, Channel Sportowy’s results have stabilized. The channel once again has over a million subscribers thanks, among other things, to recent major sporting events: Euro 2024 and the Paris Olympics. Adam Pawlukiewicz points out the challenges faced by KS.
– The life cycle of every product, including the online channel, consists of four phases – market entry, growth, stabilization and decline. All creators face this, regardless of whether their content is based on entertainment like Abstrachuje or commentary like Lekko Stronniczy. At this point, the Sports Channel is on the border between the third and fourth stages. More than four years have passed since the debut of KS, and during this time several similar formats have “grown up”. Interest in the sport spread to other channels, such as Meczyki, Wełości, Goal.pl and Kanał Zero. In the latter, Krzysztof Stanowski noted that sport is not the most important area of life for Poles. Channel Zero focuses on politics and show business, and sport is just one of the areas discussed – says Pawlukiewicz.
In 2023, Channel Sportowy, despite the lack of major sporting events and the confusion surrounding the departure of Krzysztof Stanowski, increased its sales revenue by 5.3%, its net profit decreased slightly, to PLN 5.15 million.
