So the genre started in the UK with Yule log burning (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.
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.
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].
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.
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.
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/), and it followed Saimaa ringed seals. This year's edition follows Baltic ringed seals (https://wwf.fi/en/wildlive/baltic-ringed-seal/). There may be hours of nothing happening at all, it's great.
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.
