The NRK cameras will spend a week following a Sami herder family and almost 1,500 reindeer to their summer pastures.
Slow TV is back! The 24/7 format pioneered by Norway's state broadcaster NRK returns to screens across Norway today.
A Sami tradition
This time, the NRK cameras will be following a Sami herder family and their reindeer as they move from their winter habitat on the Finnmark mountain plateau to their summer calving and grazing pastures on the coast of the Barents Sea.
Depending on the weather conditions, the full 100km journey should take about a week, and the cameras will be there to follow the migration around the clock.
Viewers will be able to watch the action from a variety of angles, including a GoPro mounted to one of the reindeer, and what is likely to be some spectacular drone footage from high above.
The show will be broadcast 24/7 on NRK but viewers outside of Norway can also follow the show online, thanks to the NRK website.
The migration of reindeer is a mammoth undertaking every year for northern Norway's Sami herders, but the tradition is becoming less and less common.
Today, just ten per cent of the Sami population make a living from reindeer in one way or another, with around 2,000 working as semi-nomadic herders.
Norway's Slow TV might resemble reality TV, but it's the total opposite in tone. Rather than instant gratification, viewers are rewarded for buying into the concept over a long period of time.
Producers pick a topic and spend hours, days, even weeks digging into it in excruciating detail. Since NRK launched the concept with a journey on the Oslo to Bergen railway in 2009, topics for slow TV have included firewood, knitting, salmon fishing, plus following journeys on the Telemark Canal and the Hurtigruten coastal ferry.
Watch the show online: NRK
Follow on social media: #nrkrein
Photos: Heather Sunderland, David Nikel
