Newsnight deputy editor Becky Emmett is joining ITV News amid an overhaul of the BBC programme.
Emmett, who was Newsnight’s co-acting editor alongside fellow deputy Rosie Seed after the recent departure of editor Stewart Maclean, will be head of ITVX for ITV News.
She will oversee the news offering on ITV’s streaming service, encompassing its editorial strategy, the live streaming of major events, and commissioning original content.
Emmett said: “I’m so excited to be returning to ITV News where I began by career as a trainee at ITV Central. I have long admired ITV’s commitment to original journalism and innovation and I am looking forward to helping grow the news offering on ITVX in this important election year.”
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Emmett replaces Chris Achilleos, who was head of ITVX for ITV News from October until his departure last month. He joined BBC News as executive news editor, streaming overseeing growth across BBC iPlayer, BBC News live pages and on bbc.com.
She will join in July. ITVX content editor Hattie Hamilton will be acting head of the platform for ITV News until then.
ITV News editor Andrew Dagnell said: “ITV News on ITVX has set the bar for delivering news to new audiences. I can’t wait to see what Becky does with the service. She will take it to new heights.”
ITVX launched in December 2022 and was described as the first streaming service to have news as a central pillar. It features a news section with both repurposed ITV News content and bespoke video packages.
Emmett, who joined Newsnight as deputy editor in late 2022, leaves the BBC programme as it reformats into an “interview, debate and discussion show” under new editor Jonathan Aspinwall.
The Newsnight team is reducing from 57 to 23 people, and the length of the programme is going from 45 minutes to half an hour, as it loses its dedicated reporters and investigative films.
Joining ITV News marks as return to production company ITN for Emmett, who was previously at Channel 4 News for ten years in roles including head of home news and a programme editor. She was also previously a trainee at ITV Central and later worked at ITV London.
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