A 24-hour livestream of newborn puppies has become an unlikely hit for Finland’s public broadcaster, drawing more than one million viewers and expanding beyond the country’s borders in its sixth year.
Puppy Live, known as Pentulive in Finnish, follows a litter from birth until adoption. Sweden’s public broadcaster, SVT, has begun streaming the programme, while a Dutch broadcaster has acquired rights to produce a version featuring puppies in the Netherlands.
The Finnish broadcaster Yle has also launched a podcast about the show and a prediction game running throughout the eight-week season. Viewers can earn points by predicting details such as the puppies’ weight, tail length and which one will grow fastest, with weekly winners receiving a mug.
Puppy Live offers a break from Finland’s troubles
This year’s litter consists of six puppies, four male and two female, cared for by their mother, Hilkka. The puppies were two weeks old when the programme was described, spending much of their time asleep on a purple blanket.
“I think anyone who is interested in the livestream expects to see sleeping puppies a lot of the time,” said Pietu Ruuttunen, a 28-year-old viewer from Jyvaskyla.
The programme is part of a Nordic tradition of “slow” television, in which viewers watch undramatic scenes unfold over long periods. Norway has broadcast hours of firewood burning and views from moving trains, while Sweden attracts audiences to a livestream of migrating moose.
Finland has also shown groceries travelling along a supermarket conveyor belt, freshwater seals in a lake and ospreys at their nest. Annette Hill, a professor of media and communication studies at Jonkoping University in Sweden, said public broadcasters were able to make such programmes without the commercial pressures faced by advertising-funded channels.
“It makes you be in the present, and it makes you slow down and stop this frenzy and stop scrolling and stop panicking about what’s going to happen tomorrow,” she said.
Puppy Live began during the coronavirus pandemic, when viewers were looking for a respite from a difficult period. Its founder, Pirjo Koskinen, said she had intended the programme to be educational but had not anticipated its effect on viewers’ mental health.
“We call it puppy therapy,” said Minttu Hahtola, a host of the new podcast.
The livestream has attracted viewers dealing with unemployment and concerns about neighbouring Russia. Elina Peltonen, 25, said war was a constant threat, but added: “Nothing bad happens in the puppy box.”
For others, the broadcast has become part of their daily routine. One viewer watches during coffee breaks, a hospital worker keeps it running on a second monitor, and another watched the puppies while giving blood.
Last year, Puppy Live and its video clips reached more than one million unique viewers, equivalent to more than a sixth of Finland’s population. This year, its content had already been seen by 1.85 million unique viewers with about six weeks of the season still remaining.
Kalle Kurittu, 32, from Helsinki, has watched the programme for years and described it as “a form of stress relief”. Mandi Salo, nine, said she loved all the puppies equally and was especially excited when one of them opened its eyes.
The audience now extends beyond Finland, including Kristine Visanen, 51, who watches from New York. “There’s no advertising,” she said. “There’s no algorithm. I don’t feel like there’s some kind of agenda.”
