{"id":372111,"date":"2026-01-15T21:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/372111\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:53:09","slug":"reemah-sakaan-appointed-president-of-5-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/372111\/","title":{"rendered":"Reemah Sakaan appointed president of 5 | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"picture\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Reemah Sakaan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1469259_reemahsakaan_300675.jpg\"  loading=\"eager\" class=\"lazyloaded\" width=\"5221\" height=\"3481\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Paramount has unveiled former BritBox chief Reemah Sakaan as 5\u2019s new president.<\/p>\n<p>Sakaan will join 5 on 27 January and will report into Kevin MacLellan, Paramount\u2019s president for international and global content distribution.<\/p>\n<p>She will lead the PSB and oversee its growth strategy as it continues to build its presence in streaming, an area in which Sakaan has significant experience having worked previously on iPlayer, ITVX and BritBox.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>5\u2019s chief content officer Ben Frow will report into Sakaan, as will the broadcaster\u2019s commercial distribution and product teams. She will also work in close partnership with Paramount\u2019s president of international ad sales Lee Sears.<\/p>\n<p>Sakaan has more than two decades of experience in streaming, global content and public service television and was a founder, and the chief creative officer, of BritBox when it launched in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>She scaled the venture internationally and was appointed global chief executive officer in 2020 and the business grew annually by 25% under her leadership.<\/p>\n<p>She had also negotiated supply deals with <a class=\"intextlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.broadcastnow.co.uk\/amazon\/11843.subject\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"intextlink_4 nofollow noopener\">Amazon<\/a>, <a class=\"intextlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.broadcastnow.co.uk\/apple\/11938.subject\" rel=\"intextlink_5 nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple<\/a>, Google and Comcast, and commissioned and co-produced a wide range of returnable British originals for the streaming service, including Irvine Welsh\u2019s Crime, After the Flood and Beyond Paradise.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, Sakaan oversaw <a class=\"intextlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.broadcastnow.co.uk\/indies\/bbc-studios\" rel=\"intextlink_3 nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BBC Studios<\/a>\u2019 acquisition of <a class=\"intextlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.broadcastnow.co.uk\/itv\/1091.subject\" rel=\"intextlink_1 nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ITV<\/a>\u2019s share of the business before stepping down in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to BritBox, Sakaan held senior roles such as director of marketing and media for ITV, where she helped to launch ITVX forerunner ITV Hub, and was head of marketing for <a class=\"intextlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.broadcastnow.co.uk\/bbc\/1031.subject\" rel=\"intextlink_0 nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BBC1<\/a> and part of the launch team for iPlayer.<\/p>\n<p>She succeeds former president Sarah Rose, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.broadcastnow.co.uk\/channel-5\/sarah-rose-to-exit-paramount\/5208713.article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">who left Paramount at the end of 2025 to join The Royal Foundation as chief executive<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>MacLellan said Sakaan \u201cbrings a wealth of experience in streaming, content and commercial strategy and I look forward to working closely with her to deliver the next phase of 5\u2019s growth journey\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Sakaan said she has \u201clong admired 5\u2019s exceptional understanding of its audience\u201d, adding: \u201cIt consistently punches above its weight and is loved by viewers, advertisers and UK creatives as a place for authentic and resonant British storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sakaan had previously been\u00a0mooted as a strong contender for the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.broadcastnow.co.uk\/channel-4\/1043.subject\" rel=\"intextlink_2 nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Channel 4<\/a>\u00a0chief executive position, which was filled recently by Priya Dogra.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount has unveiled former BritBox chief Reemah Sakaan as 5\u2019s new president. Sakaan will join 5 on 27&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-372111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}