Sunday, August 9, 2015

Like watching grown grass?

In Norway, it's called slow TV, and it's a ratings powerhouse;
Thomas Hellum, project leader for NRK’s sakte-TV (slow TV) where it all began in Hordaland, said the state broadcaster’s “dream scenario’ calls for around 15 to 20 NRK staffers to closely follow the reindeer and their Sami owners and herders over a seven-day period sometime between April 1 and May 10, and broadcast it all minute-by-minute on NRK’s Channel 2 in 2017. NRK2, Hætta said, would need to be flexible regarding its regular programming.
It's the annual migration known as Finnmarksvidda, when the reindeer start to look for greener grass upon which to feed. They find it in the lowlands near the coast and even swim out to offshore islands, as it is apparently greener on the other side of the Arctic Ocean. Slow reality TV. For which there's a demand;

NRK thinks it’s a great idea, though, as it continues to develop slow-TV programs launched with great success in 2009, when it first tracked the journey of a train between Bergen and Oslo minute-by-minute. That program attracted huge interest nationwide, as Norwegians sat down for hours, mesmerized by the quiet, relaxing pace and interesting information broadcast along the way.

NRK followed that up with smashing success two years later, when it mounted cameras all over one of the Hurtigruten ships that ply the Norwegian coast between Bergen in the south and Kirkenes in the north. The program lasted without interruption for the entire five days of the journey and ratings soared
 Fortunately there's something else for Norwegians to watch;


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