Olaf Schröder, CEO of Sport1 Medien, will leave the German media company with immediate effect.
Pit Gottschalk, previously editor-in-chief and member of the executive board, is also leaving Sport1. In future, the company will be jointly headed by Dr Matthias Kirschenhofer and Robin Seckler as co-CEOs. The reorganisation was decided by the board of directors and the supervisory board.
At the same time, Sport1 will be organised into five independent units: Sport1 Digital with the websites, online and social media offerings, the free-TV division with TV channel Sport1, the pay-TV segment with the two subscription channels Sport1+ and eSports1, the new business division to establish new business areas and the production division with the sports TV producer Plazamedia, which will continue to be headed by Jens Friedrichs.
“The greatly changed general conditions make a reorientation and stronger focus on the digital business and the establishment of new business fields necessary. We look forward to tackling this step with the new co-CEOs,” said Bernhard Burgener, chairman of the supervisory board of Sport1 Medien.
Kirschenhofer and Seckler explained: “We have both known each other and worked together for more than a decade. As a team we will now make Sport1 Medien AG more efficient and powerful. Together we will drive the changes to release energy and creativity and strengthen our competitiveness. In addition to our established core business, we will focus on expanding our digital activities in the future and establish new business areas based on our high-reach platforms.”
The supervisory board thanks Schröder: “Olaf Schröder has successfully led Sport1 through challenging times. We thank him for his many years of successful work and wish him all the best,” said Burgener. Schröder added: “I had the opportunity to lead the company with its dedicated team on its way to becoming a multi-channel sports platform. I thank the supervisory board for this and know that the company and team are in good hands.”
Kirschenhofer was appointed to the Sport1 board in September 2017. In this role, he is responsible for the areas of legal, compliance, finance and investor relations, among others. He has worked for Sport1 since 2001. Seckler has been the Chief Digital Officer of Sport1 since February 2022. In this function, he is responsible for all digital activities and projects of the company, for which he has worked since 2013.
