Simanaitis Says
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“PUPPY LOVE—A FINNISH NATIONAL PHENOMENON PART 2
YESTERDAY WE CITED THE GUARDIAN’S REPORT on “Puppy Love: Finnish 24-Hour Newborn Pup Livestream Is TV Smash Hit.” Today in Part 2, The New York Times shares a review that’s equally encouraging.
A Full Disclosure. Amelia Nierenberg and Lara McCoy report “In Troubled Times, Finland’s Public Broadcasting Has an Answer: Puppies,” The New York Times, October 23, 2026. In NYT full disclosure it’s noted, “Amelia Nierenberg, who covers Finland, is iffy about dogs. Lara McCoy, who used to live in Finland, is allergic. They reported from London.” Ha.
Other Finnish Options of “Slow TV.” Nierenberg and McCoy observe, “There was a livestream of groceries along a checkout conveyor belt. Freshwater seals play in a lake. Ospreys nest in their aerie.”
“The feeds,” they describe, “could look like a screen saver at first glance. The genre is rooted in service television, said Annette Hill, a professor of media and communication studies at Jonkoping University in Sweden. Because public broadcasters do not need to advertise or sell products, they can invest in programs free from commercial demands. Viewers find it soothing—almost therapeutic.”
Professor Hill tells Nierenberg and McCoy, “That’s what this slow TV does. 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.’ ”
A Simple But Meaningful Message. “The message is simple: Puppies are cute,” Nierenberg and McCoy conclude. “Nothing here is new—except, of course, for the puppies. For them, everything is a revelation. And their fans, on a 24/7 stakeout, get to watch them grow.”
“ ‘There’s no advertising,’ said Kristine Visanen, 51, who watches from her New York City apartment. ‘There’s no algorithm. I don’t feel like there’s some kind of agenda. This is somehow perfect, just how it is.’ “
How true, though note the obligatory 15-sec ad to view the Pentulive in some news clips. On the other hand, I livestreamed it through Yle (pronounced “OO-Lay”) and even learned some Finnish through Daughter Suz and Google Translate: kalsarikännit.
Have a nice kalsarikännit. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026
Interesting quiz: Which European language is similar to Finish?
Hint: I’ve talked about this at the website: I surmised that folks coming west split into two groups, one heading north and the other trending southerly. —ds
Osprey webcams are not the only type that I follow. A daily check on the main street of a small town in southern Wyoming is fascinating. What changes today? What changes with the seasons? Which houses are empty? Why does one of them have such a messy backyard? What’s the weather like?
Wondering how Daughter Suz learned Finnish, not the most common language take. as a college requirement. (Grandparents were from Finland. Mom grew up speaking it at home and sister and I learned when she and her sisters switched to Finn they were talking about something they didn’t want us to hear.)