The Birthplace of Slow TV: How Norway Started It All

In November 2009, the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK filmed the entire train journey from Bergen to Oslo and aired it without a single cut. Seven hours of track, tunnels, snow and stations, shown exactly as it happened. Critics expected nobody to watch. Instead, close to a fifth of Norway's population tuned in at some point during the broadcast.

NRK called it sakte-TV, slow television, and kept going. Two years later they filmed the Hurtigruten coastal ferry's full six-day voyage up the Norwegian coast, cameras running the whole way. Both broadcasts turned out to have the same quiet appeal: nothing was building to anything. You could join for five minutes or five hours, and either way, you were simply there.

The genre spread from Norway to broadcasters and streaming services everywhere, and it is the same idea behind every channel here. Long, unedited journeys, shown whole, so a place can keep you company for as long as you want to stay.