Swedish puppy livestream targets one million viewers
Tuesday 13th October 2026 on 16:45 in
Finland
A livestream following six puppies has drawn 250,000 views in Sweden, and public broadcaster SVT is now aiming for one million, Yle reports.
The programme, called Valparna Live in Swedish, follows dog Hilkka and her puppies for about eight weeks, until they are old enough to leave for new homes. Hilkka, a lagotto romagnolo, gave birth to six puppies on Saturday.
SVT producer Nils Pejryd said the programme was only just getting started in Sweden. He described it as an experiment but said the broadcaster believed it could attract a larger audience.
Swedish viewers have begun suggesting names, with some drawing on Nordic stories and mythology. Suggestions include Kalevala, Nordic mythology and Moomin, as well as Piamat and Sumit. Viewers in both Sweden and Finland can take part in choosing a theme for the puppies’ names.
The livestream was originally planned for Sweden’s Finnish-speaking population, but SVT later widened its target audience to the whole country. The broadcaster’s frequently asked questions page includes a question about why Finnish is sometimes spoken during the programme.
Puppy Live is an example of slow television, intended to offer viewers a break from troubling world events. The format began in Norway in 2009, when broadcaster NRK showed a seven-hour live train journey from Bergen to Oslo.
In Finland, the programme has gained more than five million starts on Yle Areena this year. Its fifth season, in autumn 2025, drew more than one million viewers to its stream and video clips on the platform, while the programme’s pages on Yle’s website received 6.5 million views.