Rivers was educated at Beechen Cliff School,[1] a boys' state comprehensive school in the city of Bath in Somerset in South West England, followed by University College at Durham University where he studied social science, and Falmouth College of Arts, where he obtained a post-graduate diploma in broadcast journalism.

He started in BBC local radio in south-west Britain, in Cornwall and Devon.

After a stint as a producer at BBC Radio Five Live, he worked at Euronews in Lyon for a year in 2000.

He has covered a variety of international stories including the earthquakes in Nepal in 2015[5] and on-going assignments to Syria and the Middle East.

He was the first foreign journalist to report from Kharkiv on the same day missiles hit the main administrative building in the city.