In most cases, nothing significant happens. A wide Nordic river, still having its banks lined with melting snow, calmly meanders through a pristine forest of spruce and pine. However, this spring, as every spring for the past six years, numerous people will be fixated on it.

When “Den stora älgvandringen” – alternately translated as The Great Moose Migration or The Great Elk Trek – first aired on the public broadcaster SVT’s on-demand platform in 2019, nearly one million people tuned in. Last year, it was 9 million.

Who knows what this year will bring? Given the current state of the world, a three-week-long, round-the-clock live stream of a few hundred moose cautiously crossing the Ångerman River in northern Sweden to reach their summer pastures could be just what viewers need.

The show’s latest season launched a week earlier than usual on Tuesday due to warmer than usual spring weather. “There are a lot of moose around,” the producer, Stefan Edlund, told SVT. “They’re waiting for us. We’ve had to adjust. But it should be OK.”

The program’s team of 15, working from a control room in Umeå, 400 miles (600km) north of Stockholm, had already laid out most of their 20,000 meters of cables and positioned their 30-plus remote video and night vision cameras, according to Edlund.

The crew controls more than 30 remote video and night vision cameras from a control room in Umeå. Which is just as well, because the show’s fans are more than ready.

Ulla Malmgren, 62, stated that she had stocked up on coffee and pre-cooked meals so she would not miss a moment. “Sleep? Forget it. I don’t sleep,” she said.

Malmgren, who is part of a Facebook group of over 76,000 viewers, informed the Associated Press that she loved the fact that there were “about a million people” watching “all saying the same thing: ‘Go on! Yes, you can do it!’”

Another fan, William Garp Liljefors, 20, admitted to being late for class during the show. “I feel relaxed, but at the same time, I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s a moose. Oh, what if there’s a moose? I can’t go to the toilet!’” he said.

The show, and its success, is part of the growing trend for “slow television” that some argue was pioneered by the late US pop artist Andy Warhol. More recently, the concept gained popularity with the Norwegian broadcaster NRK’s pre-recorded “Bergensbanen,” which showed a seven-hour train journey from Bergen to Oslo.

The show focuses on showing events as they occur, without the rush of plotting and editing. Media experts attribute its appeal to its calming absence of staged tension and drama. Annette Hill, a professor of media and communications at Jönköping University in Sweden, noted, “But something very beautiful is happening in that minute-by-minute moment.” Epsen Ytreberg, a professor of media studies at the University of Oslo, likened slow TV to an escape from its usual frenetic pace. While the show mostly features serene scenes, it occasionally captures moose making their way across the river, sending push alerts and displaying counters for viewers.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/15/millions-tune-in-for-three-week-live-stream-of-swedens-moose-migration