Svalbard Minute by Minute Slow TV announced

NRK's Svalbard Slow TV Project
(stock photo)

NRK's record-breaking five day Slow TV broadcast aboard Hurtigruten looks set to be well and truly smashed this year as the Norwegian state broadcaster announces a major new project.

Svalbard Minutt for Minutt (Minute by Minute) will be filmed in August 2019 but NOT transmitted live, owing to significant issues with the signal. NRK usually finds a way to work around these issues, such as triangulating signals with staff on nearby mountain tops to get the signal out of fjords and topography which blocks signals from the ground. 

As an idea in gestation since 2011, you can be sure it's been thought around and researched - so instead, it will be broadcast continuously over nine days in February 2020 to mark the centenary of Svalbard's treaty incorporating it into Norway.

With the midnight sun still giving 24 hours of working light each day there should be a glorious glow for a sustained 'golden hour' sunset vibe for several hours each night.

At least 25 staff from NRK will be involved in the production, estimated to run at nine days, six hours and five minutes. Multiple cameras will be installed on MS Spitsbergen, one of the tour ships of the ferry operator, Hurtigruten. Hopefully the modified bough-cam with a rotating point-of-view will make a reappearance (last seen in Hurtigruten Minutt for Minutt). Drone footage will give spectacular views; all making for a multi-camera, dynamic experience but still a Slow TV journey around the entirety of Svalbard.

The Slow TV Blog will be keeping an eye out for news and developments for this and other Slow TV projects over the coming year.

The documentary - "That Damned Cow - Just What is Norwegian Slow TV?" is available to watch in full on Facebook Video now.

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