BBC and ITV star bags Sky News presenter job in fresh hosting shake-up – and starts in a matter of days
SKY News have signed up a former BBC and ITV star to become one of the channel’s flagship faces.
Matt Barbet, 47, will be appearing on a variety of the channel’s biggest shows as well as landing his own Sunday programme after decades in journalism.
The presenter has worked on some of the biggest stories over the last 25 years for a variety of outlets including the BBC, ITV and Channel 5.
Matt’s new role will see him present a new Sunday mid-morning and early afternoon show between 10am and 2pm.
The programme will become his flagship role with Sky as well as being a stand-in host for all of their biggest programmes.
He will first appear on the network this weekend as the presenter of the Breakfast programme.
Matt will then be seen throughout the week leading The News Hour at 5pm as well as presenting The UK Tonight from 8pm and hosting Sky News Today.
Confirming his appointment as a leading presenter with the network, Matt said: “Now is the perfect time to join Sky News as it continues its exciting evolution under relatively new leadership.”
He continued: “With much of the world’s population heading to the polls this year, including general elections in the USA and – most likely – the UK, there is nowhere better to be involved with breaking news.
“I’m looking forward to providing our audience with a trusted and balanced understanding of what is happening in an increasingly polarised world, with humility, honesty, and humour too.”
Sky News Group’s executive chairman David Rhodes added: “Matt brings considerable journalistic experience to the challenges we engage with every day at Sky News. He’ll be an important part of the multi-platform story we are telling today.
“We’re so encouraged that someone of Matt’s skill and perspective is joining us in this critical time for our profession and our world.”
Matt began his broadcasting career in the early 2000s as a newsreader for BBC Radio 1 on Sara Cox’s breakfast show.
Between 2003 and 2007, he worked on different programmes for BBC News and BBC London as a presenter and reporter and even hosted a strand of the Children In Need telethon in 2006.
He briefly appeared as a relief presenter on BBC Breakfast in 2007 before landing a job at Channel 5 as a host for their main 5 News programme.
He left the channel in April 2012 to became a co-presenter of ITV Breakfast programme daybreak alongside household name Ranvir Singh.
The duo presented the first hour of the programme every day for two years and occasionally hosted the full programme until it was axed and replaced by Good Morning Britain.
While Ranvir moved to the new programme, Matt opted to return to 5 News as the host of their 6:30pm coverage as well as briefly hosting the live Saturday morning entertainment series The Saturday Show with Gaby Roslin before being replaced by Matt Allwright.
His appointment at Sky marks his first journalism role in more than five years.
Having quit Channel 5 in late 2017, the following year Matt became a consultant and partner in leading UK PR firm Freuds.