Before the Swedish success of slow television “The Great Moose Migration” began broadcasting on Tuesday, Ulla Malmgren supplied coffee and prepared meals. She doesn’t want to miss a moment of the 20 -day and 24 -hour event.
“Sleep? Forget it. I don’t sleep,” he said.
Malmgren, 62, is not alone. The show, called ” THE GREAT ALCES Walk “In Swedish and sometimes translated as” The Great Elk Trek “in English, it began in 2019 with almost a million people observing. In 2024, production reached 9 million viewers in SVT Play, the transmission platform for the national broadcaster SVT.
The live broadcast began a week earlier than planned due to the warm climate and early movement of the alces. Malmgren was ready.
From now on May 4, the remote cameras of the live broadcast will capture dozens of classes while swimming through the ångerman river, about 300 kilometers (187 miles) northwest of Stockholm, in the annual spring migration towards summer grazing grazing.
It doesn’t happen much for hours, and fans say that is beauty.
“I feel relaxed, but at the same time I give: ‘Oh, there is an alce, oh! What happens if there is an alce?
“The Great Moose Migration” is part of a trend that began in 2009 with Noruega Nrk’s public station, the thorough transmission of a seven -hour trip through the southern part of the country.
The slow TV programming style has spread, with productions in the United Kingdom, China and other places. The Dutch Central City of UtrechtFor example, he installed a ” Fish bell “In a river lock that allows live spectators to alert the authorities of retained fish while migrating to spawning land.
Annette Hill, a media and communications professor at Jönköping University in Sweden, said Slow TV has roots on reality television, but lacks the staging and, therefore, feels more authentic for viewers. The productions allow the audience to relax and see how the trip takes place.
“It became, in a strange, exciting way because nothing catastrophic is happening, nothing spectacular is happening,” he said. “But something very beautiful is happening at that time minute by minute.”
As an expert and fan of “The Great Moose Migration”, Hill said that live transmission helps him stop his day following the natural rhythms of spring.
“This is definitely a moment to have a quiet and atmospheric environment in my own home, and I really appreciate it,” he said.
The soothing effect extends to the crew, according to Johan Erhag, SVT project manager for “the great migration of alces”.
“All who work with him fall into their normal stress,” he said.
The elles have traveled the route for thousands of years, which makes it easier for the crew to know where to place about 20,000 meters (almost 12 miles) of cable and position 26 remote cameras and cameras of seven nights. A drone is also used.
The crew of up to 15 people works in the SVT control room in Umeå, producing the remote show to avoid interfering with migration.
SVT will not say how much production costs, but Erhag said it is cheap to take into account the 506 hours of footage broadcast last year.
Erhag said the Swedes have always been fascinated by the approximately 300,000 alces that roam their forests. The largest animal in the Scandinavian country is known as “King of the Forest.” A bulllise can reach 210 centimeters (6 feet 10 inches) at shoulder height and weigh 450 kilograms (992 pounds).
Despite their size, herbivores are usually shy and lonely.
“We don’t really see it very often. You often see it when you drive perhaps once or twice in your life,” Erhag said. “I think it’s a thing that has been so popular. And then you bring nature to everyone’s living room.”
Hanna Sandberg, 36, began to see the program in 2019, although she did not see any Alce. It was tune in the following year, finally saw some and hooked.
“You can see them and be part of their natural habitat in a way that you could never be otherwise,” he said.
After hours of showing an empty forest, a camera captures images of an alce that is approaching the riverbank. Suddenly, slow television becomes urgent.
The thrust alert reaches the SVT application – “Första älgarna I Bild!” What translates as “First LCE in the camera!” – As the spectators tune in.
“In fact, I would like to fly a little on the wall in each home that observes the migration of the alces. Because I think there are about one million people who say the same: ‘Follow! Yes, you can do it!'” Malmgren said.
Mega-Fans like Malmgren, which is located in a Facebook group of more than 76,000 spectators, undertake to observe as many hours as possible.
“I arrived at school because I saw Ambs and my teacher said: ‘What did you see in the city?’ And I thought, ‘No, it’s on television,’ “said Garp Liljafors.
Malmgren said that friends and family have learned not to bother her when the alces are moving.
“When someone asks me: ‘What are you doing? Oh, it doesn’t matter, it’s the great migration,” he said. “They know.”
