Tween surf stories travel well over the foam

Tween surf stories travel well over the foam

AUSTRALIA'S great cultural export - children's television - is growing up. Move over B1 and B2, the sun-kissed teenager on a surfboard is the latest antipodean character to storm the international TV market.

The ABC's new teen drama series Blue Water High was launched internationally at MIPTV, the TV marketplace in Cannes, this month and has already been snapped up by Belgium, South Africa, France, New Zealand and Germany. It is set in a surf academy where seven lucky teenagers have been selected for an 12-month surf and school program.

Australia sells more children's TV than adult TV overseas. Part of the reason is that the budgets for children's drama are quite high - some $600,000 an hour compared with $400,000 for adult drama - because there is often a lot more action.

Everybody is surfing...