Director of Television, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Sydney)

Kim Dalton is one of Australia's most celebrated screen executives.

Kim has been a practitioner and program maker producing a number of award wining television dramas and documentaries including two major television miniseries, In Between for SBS TV and The Magistrate for ABC TV. As an investment manager at the Australian Film Finance Corporation in the early ‘90s he was involved in the financing of numerous projects across documentaries, television drama and feature films including the hugely successful Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla.

In 1992 Kim joined Beyond International, one of Australia’s leading international film and television companies, and worked on the international financing, production and distribution of a large slate of television and feature films.

From 1999, as Chief Executive of the Australian Film Commission, Kim was responsible for overhauling its development programs, expanding its screen culture programs and ensuring the agency’s and industry’s engagement with digital and online technology, production and distribution. As CEO Kim led the policy debate around Australian content on television and was a spokesperson for the industry and a key advisor to government on the audio visual industries during negotiations on the Aust/US Free Trade Agreement.

Since joining the ABC as Director of TV in 2006 Kim has made a major contribution to the policy debate around Australian content and the role of the public broadcaster in the digital era. Under Kim’s leadership ABC TV has gone from being a single linear channel to delivering its content across multiple digital channels – ABC1, ABC2, ABCforKids on 2, ABC3 and an imminent 24 hours news channel – and multiple platforms including www, VOD, iView and mobile.

In 2009 the ABC received a significant increase in its budget in order to establish its dedicated digital children’s channel and to increase its output of Australian drama.

In 2007 Kim was awarded an OAM for service to the film and television industry in policy, in assistance to Indigenous producers and in the promotion of emerging visual technology.

Kim is the Chair of Freeview, the organisation established by Australian free-to-air broadcasters to promote and brand the digital free-to-air platform. In 2009 Kim was re-appointed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs as a Board member of the Australia Korea Foundation.