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For those who don’t know slow tv was popularized by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) with train journeys and ship routes. https://en.wikipedia.org/

by vinni2 5y ago

For those who don’t know slow tv was popularized by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) with train journeys and ship routes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television

andrelaszlo 5y ago
But perfected in Sweden with The Great Moose Migration! </silly Scandinavian rivalry>
- WJW 5y ago
  So the genre started in the UK with Yule log burning (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_log https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_log), then was popularised in Norway and perfected in Sweden. Might we expect the slow eastward migration to continue and for Finland to come up with the next masterpiece? The Finns are already somewhat notorious for going long stretches of time without speaking, after all. (Big hugs to all nations involved of course)
  - mcv 5y ago
    Didn't Germany already do this ages ago? At night, they would broadcast various train trips[0]. I even recall there was a bit of a scandal when they cut out part of the trip through a tunnel, because the screen would be all black for too long. [0] Just from a single camera at the front of the train, no further editing. I haven't seen the Norwegian and Swedish Slow TV yet, but I get the impression they use multiple cameras. The German version was super simple, but very relaxing in its simplicity.
    - bipson 5y ago
      Agreed. The wikipedia link above has 2009 as the earliest date. In Austria you would find random scenic train rides on TV whenever you would switch on the TV in the middle of the night at least from 2002 onward, if not earlier... And I don't think this started in Austria.
    - nibix 5y ago
      Yes, the train rides were in the night programme of ARD during the 90s [1]. Meanwhile, the other public German TV channel ZDF did the contrast program with a different mode of transportation: They had dash cam views of car rides [2]. [1] https://youtu.be/7ycjaWRnETU https://youtu.be/7ycjaWRnETU [2] https://youtu.be/2jI-Sn_X7x4?t=213 https://youtu.be/2jI-Sn_X7x4?t=213
  - ui4jd73bdj 5y ago
    We have slow TV for hawk nesting and seal sunbathing in Finland. Unfortunately the seals sunbathing location was figured out one year and they had to stop broadcasting it.
    - op00to 5y ago
      Heh. Did humans do their own sunbathing for the camera?
  - alophawen 5y ago
    Check out finnish outdoor survival on youtube
    - mackatsol 5y ago
      Link please?
      - tilt_error 5y ago
        https://youtu.be/Gzc2nAhY8OI https://youtu.be/Gzc2nAhY8OI
  - apeescape 5y ago
    Not live TV per se, but a WWF web stream following ringed seals is hugely popular in Finland. The OG version is called Norppalive (https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/saimaa-ringed-seal/ https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/saimaa-ringed-seal/), and it followed Saimaa ringed seals. This year's edition follows Baltic ringed seals (https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/baltic-ringed-seal/ https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/baltic-ringed-seal/). There may be hours of nothing happening at all, it's great.
  - reaperducer 5y ago
    the genre started in the UK with Yule log burning When did the UK start broadcasting yule logs? In the United States it goes back to at least the mid 1960's, and possibly before. Stations in most large cities still air the show, though shorter now (1-3 hours) than before.
- mongol 5y ago
  Actually, I think Norway has the edge here. The fjord scenery can't be beaten. (And I am Swedish)
Jaruzel 5y ago
Not 100% live (most of the time), but definitely a good candidate for Slow TV is RailCowGirl: https://www.youtube.com/c/RailCowGirl https://www.youtube.com/c/RailCowGirl Especially good if you love trains, and amazing scenery.
dmurray 5y ago
They're also the only national broadcaster I know of that devotes time to classical chess matches which typically last 4+ hours with one piece being moved ever few minutes. It helps that the world champion and best chess player is Norwegian, but slow TV may have made them more receptive.
- karencarits 5y ago
  And people love it. Last year at Boxing Day, 300 000-500 000 viewers in average, close to a million viewers overall [1] - that's ~20% of the population. And the popularity has been high for at least five years now, as it has started to become more of a tradition Freely available for those interested: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/sjakk https://tv.nrk.no/serie/sjakk [1] https://kampanje.com/medier/2021/12/kvelden-for-kvelden-mistet-nesten-140.000-seere/ https://kampanje.com/medier/2021/12/kvelden-for-kvelden-mist...
2143 5y ago
I've heard about this before. And I'm puzzled. Are the Scandinavians so bored that they find the dashcam of a train amusing? When people are given good social security, food, healthcare, education and everything else, do they start to find life boring? Update: I don't mean any offense to Scandinavians or anybody else. Update 2: I'm not American, so please don't use the comment section to crap on Americans with the assumption that I'll be offended (and also think about what that reveals about you). This is hilarious. Update 3: I now realise it's just one person who's doing all the aforementioned crapping (at the time of this update). Maybe that person is having a bad day.
- Sharlin 5y ago
  Train dashcam videos are an absolutely awesome way to chill and relax, it's almost meditative. Great way to spend a break at work, for example, and probably much better for one's mental health than almost all the crap that's on normal TV.
- arghwhat 5y ago
  This has nothing to do with Scandinavians, it's just a form of entertainment you apparently do not seem to enjoy. There's plenty of this stuff. Go on Twitch and you'll find people playing very uneventful video games for hours, and people will hang around to watch it. There has even been sessions of watching grass grow or paint dry, and people watched it.
- linguistics__ 5y ago
  That's an odd take. A lot of people just like having the TV or radio on in the background and this is a cheap and relaxing kind of content to fill that niche.
  - 2143 5y ago
    Hmm. I see. Actually, I never put on TV in the background. Either there's something I want to watch or there isn't, in which case I turn off the TV. I sometimes keep music on in the background. But this is only if I actually feel like listening to music. For instance, I can drive for hours with no music on (and no, my car exhaust note isn't very exciting).
fatih-erikli 5y ago
I love watching trains
amelius 5y ago
So, basically moving wallpaper.

by vinni2 5y ago

andrelaszlo 5y ago

But perfected in Sweden with The Great Moose Migration! </silly Scandinavian rivalry>

WJW 5y ago
So the genre started in the UK with Yule log burning (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_log https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_log), then was popularised in Norway and perfected in Sweden. Might we expect the slow eastward migration to continue and for Finland to come up with the next masterpiece? The Finns are already somewhat notorious for going long stretches of time without speaking, after all. (Big hugs to all nations involved of course)
- mcv 5y ago
  Didn't Germany already do this ages ago? At night, they would broadcast various train trips[0]. I even recall there was a bit of a scandal when they cut out part of the trip through a tunnel, because the screen would be all black for too long. [0] Just from a single camera at the front of the train, no further editing. I haven't seen the Norwegian and Swedish Slow TV yet, but I get the impression they use multiple cameras. The German version was super simple, but very relaxing in its simplicity.
  - bipson 5y ago
    Agreed. The wikipedia link above has 2009 as the earliest date. In Austria you would find random scenic train rides on TV whenever you would switch on the TV in the middle of the night at least from 2002 onward, if not earlier... And I don't think this started in Austria.
  - nibix 5y ago
    Yes, the train rides were in the night programme of ARD during the 90s [1]. Meanwhile, the other public German TV channel ZDF did the contrast program with a different mode of transportation: They had dash cam views of car rides [2]. [1] https://youtu.be/7ycjaWRnETU https://youtu.be/7ycjaWRnETU [2] https://youtu.be/2jI-Sn_X7x4?t=213 https://youtu.be/2jI-Sn_X7x4?t=213
- ui4jd73bdj 5y ago
  We have slow TV for hawk nesting and seal sunbathing in Finland. Unfortunately the seals sunbathing location was figured out one year and they had to stop broadcasting it.
  - op00to 5y ago
    Heh. Did humans do their own sunbathing for the camera?
- alophawen 5y ago
  Check out finnish outdoor survival on youtube
  - mackatsol 5y ago
    Link please?
    - tilt_error 5y ago
      https://youtu.be/Gzc2nAhY8OI https://youtu.be/Gzc2nAhY8OI
- apeescape 5y ago
  Not live TV per se, but a WWF web stream following ringed seals is hugely popular in Finland. The OG version is called Norppalive (https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/saimaa-ringed-seal/ https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/saimaa-ringed-seal/), and it followed Saimaa ringed seals. This year's edition follows Baltic ringed seals (https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/baltic-ringed-seal/ https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/baltic-ringed-seal/). There may be hours of nothing happening at all, it's great.
- reaperducer 5y ago
  the genre started in the UK with Yule log burning When did the UK start broadcasting yule logs? In the United States it goes back to at least the mid 1960's, and possibly before. Stations in most large cities still air the show, though shorter now (1-3 hours) than before.
mongol 5y ago
Actually, I think Norway has the edge here. The fjord scenery can't be beaten. (And I am Swedish)

Jaruzel 5y ago

Not 100% live (most of the time), but definitely a good candidate for Slow TV is RailCowGirl: https://www.youtube.com/c/RailCowGirl https://www.youtube.com/c/RailCowGirl Especially good if you love trains, and amazing scenery.

dmurray 5y ago

They're also the only national broadcaster I know of that devotes time to classical chess matches which typically last 4+ hours with one piece being moved ever few minutes. It helps that the world champion and best chess player is Norwegian, but slow TV may have made them more receptive.

karencarits 5y ago
And people love it. Last year at Boxing Day, 300 000-500 000 viewers in average, close to a million viewers overall [1] - that's ~20% of the population. And the popularity has been high for at least five years now, as it has started to become more of a tradition Freely available for those interested: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/sjakk https://tv.nrk.no/serie/sjakk [1] https://kampanje.com/medier/2021/12/kvelden-for-kvelden-mistet-nesten-140.000-seere/ https://kampanje.com/medier/2021/12/kvelden-for-kvelden-mist...

2143 5y ago

I've heard about this before. And I'm puzzled. Are the Scandinavians so bored that they find the dashcam of a train amusing? When people are given good social security, food, healthcare, education and everything else, do they start to find life boring? Update: I don't mean any offense to Scandinavians or anybody else. Update 2: I'm not American, so please don't use the comment section to crap on Americans with the assumption that I'll be offended (and also think about what that reveals about you). This is hilarious. Update 3: I now realise it's just one person who's doing all the aforementioned crapping (at the time of this update). Maybe that person is having a bad day.

Sharlin 5y ago
Train dashcam videos are an absolutely awesome way to chill and relax, it's almost meditative. Great way to spend a break at work, for example, and probably much better for one's mental health than almost all the crap that's on normal TV.
arghwhat 5y ago
This has nothing to do with Scandinavians, it's just a form of entertainment you apparently do not seem to enjoy. There's plenty of this stuff. Go on Twitch and you'll find people playing very uneventful video games for hours, and people will hang around to watch it. There has even been sessions of watching grass grow or paint dry, and people watched it.
linguistics__ 5y ago
That's an odd take. A lot of people just like having the TV or radio on in the background and this is a cheap and relaxing kind of content to fill that niche.
- 2143 5y ago
  Hmm. I see. Actually, I never put on TV in the background. Either there's something I want to watch or there isn't, in which case I turn off the TV. I sometimes keep music on in the background. But this is only if I actually feel like listening to music. For instance, I can drive for hours with no music on (and no, my car exhaust note isn't very exciting).

fatih-erikli 5y ago

I love watching trains

amelius 5y ago

So, basically moving wallpaper.