Annika Rody is stepping down from her position as media rights director at the German broadcasting heavyweight Sport1.

Rody, who has held that role since late 2021, announced her departure via a LinkedIn post yesterday.

She first joined the German network in 2018 as corporate legal counsel, before transitioning to the head of media rights and distribution in early 2020.

Before arriving at Sport1, she was legal counsel at the ProSiebenSat.1 free-to-air commercial network, between May 2017 and April 2018.

In her LinkedIn statement, Rody said: "I was incredibly proud to become part of the Sport1 family in 2018, joining as Legal Counsel. That feeling never faded - not when stepping into the media rights world, not when earning the trust to lead the team.

"We challenged things, celebrated major wins like the Bundesliga [German top-tier soccer] and Darts tender, and created stories that would probably get cut from a movie script for being too unrealistic."

The last two years have seen an intense restructuring at Sport1, after a 50% stake in the broadcaster was sold to Turkish media group Acunmedya in early 2024.

Then, in June of that year, a major reshuffle of the network’s structure was enacted, with five “independent profit centers” created.

That restructuring also involved chief executive Olaf Schröder leaving the company with immediate effect.

Matthias Reichert was then promoted to the role of Sport1 managing director in February 2025.

Most recently, meanwhile, last July, the Sport1 Medien company agreed a deal to sell production firm Plazamedia to DMC Production.

In terms of its top-tier sports rights, Sport1 currently covers properties such as the Women's Bundesliga, Major League Baseball, Professional Darts Corporation action, and various motor racing series.