ABC hires SBS's Richard Finlayson as new television director SBS executive Richard Finlayson in 2007. Photo: Jim Rice The national broadcaster has appointed SBS TV executive Richard Finlayson to the post of director of television. The position, which oversees the national broadcaster's television operations, including its suite of digital TV channels, has been vacant since February. ABC managing director Mark Scott confirmed Finlayson's appointment. "Richard brings to the job deep experience in media and broadcasting with a career that has spanned TV production and programming, business development, digital distribution and print journalism," Scott said in an email to staff. He joins us from our fellow public broadcaster SBS where he has worked for more than seven years - currently as chief operating officer and, prior to that, director of commercial affairs. Mr Scott said Finlayson was instrumental in driving "cultural change and delivering audience-focused content through genuine cross-divisional and cross-platform collaboration" at SBS. Finlayson also "championed a reshaping of SBS, redirecting operational resources to focus on creative capacity, leading its successful subscription channels (World Movies and Studio) as well as being responsible for key deals at SBS, including bringing the A-League to free-to-air TV." Finlayson beat out a field of candidates which included head of the BBC's Australian pay-TV channels business, Deirdre Brennan. Other candidates included former SBS director of content Matt Campbell, who recently left a senior post at Shine Australia, and ABC1 channel controller Brendan Dahill. Finlayson is a broadcast executive with more than two decades' experience. He is currently chief operating officer at SBS, a position he has held since 2010. He has previously worked in pay TV, at the multi-channel operator XYZ. Fairfax published the full list of candidates in March, including a number of early contenders, such as former Ten Network programming boss David Mott, Nine executive Courtney Gibson and former Zapruder executive Anita Jacoby. The director of television is one of six division heads that report to ABC's managing director Mark Scott. The ABC's previous director of television, Kim Dalton, announced his resignation from the top post in December last year. He remained at the ABC until earlier this year to see projects through to their conclusion. Finlayson takes up the position on July 1.