The ultimate slow TV: a 168-hour show on reindeer migration

Using drones, snowmobiles and antler-cams, Norwegian broadcaster NRK is charting the passage of more than 1,000 reindeer as they travel to pastures new. Just as soon as they get a move on

High up on a mountain plateau in Lapland there has been a tense silence for some days. A crew from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) has been stuck with a herd of reindeer who are not intending to move. But move they must. Food is getting scarce and besides, their annual spring migration, towards new grazing land down at the coast 200km away, is going live on TV. Minute by minute.

The transmission started on Monday night, but as the reindeer scraped through snow searching for more food, the lead female deer looked on unconcerned and immobile. The crew, less so. "We were waiting for the lead female to make a move," editor Ole Rune Hitta explains. All reindeer herds have female leaders, but this this one seemed to be a little stuck. More than 1,000 reindeer and many more television viewers - including those across the world following the live stream - were about to go on a spectacular journey, if she ever got going.