Head Counsel, Sky

Consumer, Competition & Regulatory

Salary not provided

Expert level

Dublin

Broadband and telecommunications company

Job no longer available

Broadband and telecommunications company

1001+ employees

B2CB2BEntertainmentTelecommunicationsMedia

Job no longer available

Salary not provided

Expert level

Dublin

1001+ employees

B2CB2BEntertainmentTelecommunicationsMedia

Company mission

To connect people with the very best entertainment, sports, news, arts and local, original content.

Job

Company

Role

Who you are

Be an Irish qualified lawyer with strong academics and experience in private practice or in a leading in-house team. A minimum of 8 years’ PQE is required for this role
Have a positive outlook and enjoy working in a collegiate and collaborative way
Be competent and confident in your field, with strength in legal advisory work, and have the ability to think laterally to find solutions, work at pace and prioritise effectively
Have experience managing multiple senior stakeholders with a resilient and pragmatic approach to getting the job done
A particularly strong candidate will also have:
Experience in the telecommunications, pay TV, digital services, or media sector
An understanding of, and ability to apply, consumer law and regulation to the advertising and sale of Sky and NOW goods and services, and good working knowledge of industry guidance in these areas
Regulatory experience in the telecoms or media sectors
A good working knowledge of data protection law, in particular as it relates to marketing and sales
Experience of drafting and advising on consumer contracts

What the job involves

Reports to: Director – Consumer, Competition & Regulatory
The Head Counsel acts as a legal partner to the senior management team of the Sky Ireland business focusing on EU and Irish consumer, competition and regulatory matters
The Head Counsel is also a member of the extended UK & Ireland Legal leadership team (together with the Directors of Legal) and is expected to be a role model leader for the Department
As Head Counsel you will be responsible for advising Sky’s most creative and innovative people on issues concerning telecoms regulation, consumer law and media regulation as they relate to Sky’s wide range of products and services, which includes Sky Mobile, Sky TV, Sky Broadband and NOW
Managing senior stakeholders, including acting as the key point of contact for the CEO of the Irish business and their leadership team on consumer, competition and regulatory matters, working closely with the Director of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs
Key legal contact for Sky’s regulatory, product, commercial, finance, sales and marketing teams
Working with the Regulatory and Corporate Affairs team, to liaise with government and with regulatory bodies such as ComReg, the CCPC, the ASA, BEREC and the European Commission on areas such as telecoms, consumer and media regulation. This will include coordinating Sky’s response to public consultations at EU and Irish level and/or contributing to industry-wide responses
Leading on new product and service propositions from initial concept to development, launch and beyond, including, for example, the launch of Sky Glass and Sky Mobile in Ireland
Advising Sky and NOW teams on the impact and implementation of consumer law, telecoms regulation and media regulation
Advising on broadcast and non-broadcast advertising, campaign development and product / service claims development

Our take

Sky formed through the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting in 1990, making it the UK's largest pay-TV company. After the acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland in 2014, Sky Group was formed, transforming the UK company into Europe's leading entertainment and media group.

With the recent success of their original content, Sky doubled their investment into this space by 2024 with a brand new movie and TV studio being built. This is expected to create an additional £3 billion of production investment in UK creative sector in the first five years alone.

Sky's streaming service, Now TV, was launched in 2012 to compete with the rising tide of Netflix and, more recently, with Amazon's Prime Video. With pay-TV subscriptions dropping and the video streaming industry expected to grow by a further 20% by 2027, Sky has remained competitive by offering a range of deals, partnering with Netflix, and developing its own TV - Sky Glass, as it aims to keep up with consumer trends.