Former Sky News executive Priya Sahathevan joins the Reuters Institute as a Visiting Fellow in October 2024

Priya Sahathevan is joining the Reuters Institute as a Visiting Fellow for one academic term in October 2024. Sahathevan, who has just stepped down as Director of Strategy and Business Development at Sky News, will be working on issues around technology, audience engagement and media regulation. During her time in Oxford, she’ll share her experiences and her learnings with our Journalist Fellows and with the rest of the Institute's community.

Sahathevan is an experienced media and legal executive, passionate about navigating novel issues arising at the intersection of content, technology and evolving legal and regulatory landscapes. Enabling content creators to reach current and future audiences against the backdrop of continuous market, technology and regulatory change has been core to her work. 

Sahathevan has spent the last decade at Sky, most recently as Director of Strategy and Business Development for Sky News. In this role, she established and led Sky News’ first Strategy & Business Development function, delivering insights on content performance, audience engagement, market trends and new opportunities to the newsroom and key stakeholders, as well as forging key content and distribution partnerships.  

She developed and oversaw the implementation of Sky News’ first comprehensive audio strategy, including the launch of the UK's first female-led political podcast – Electoral Dysfunction. She also worked together with the Sky News AI Working Group to advance Sky News’ AI strategy. 

Sahathevan is a graduate from the University of Cambridge and an experienced competition lawyer.  Earlier in her Sky career, she was a senior lead in the legal team navigating the uncharted territory of the UK’s first in-depth media plurality review.  The team secured regulatory approval for the proposed takeover of Sky, culminating in Comcast’s $39 billion purchase of Sky and a meaningful funding guarantee for Sky News.

The Law Society recognised her work on the takeover, shortlisting her as 'In-House Solicitor of the Year'. She was also a core senior member of the legal and commercial teams reshaping Sky’s foundational Hollywood content relationships for the streaming era. 

Sahathevan has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, developing innovative people development programmes at Sky and establishing Sky’s first mentoring scheme for aspiring solicitors from disadvantaged backgrounds.