'Out Of The Blue' spreads through Europe

Several European broadcasters have acquired Aussie soap Out of the Blue, despite its poor ratings performance in the UK.

The show was commissioned by the BBC in the hope that it would follow Neighbours as a successful daytime soap.

France's AB Droits, RTE in Ireland, SBS in the Netherlands and Belgian broadcaster VTM have all picked it up in recent months, and were this week joined by Norwegian commercial network TV2.

Out of the Blue started airing on BBC One in April but, after its audience fell sharply and failed to recover, the corporation confirmed that it would not return after its initial six-month run.

TV2's head of acquisitions John Ranelagh said: "We are very excited to be acquiring this new Australian soap and believe it will share the same success that Home And Away has received in Norway as well as generating the results that our advertisers seek."