Coastal steamer fantastic TV hit

NRK’s “minute-by-minute” coverage of MS Nordnorge’s voyage from Bergen in the southwest to Kirkenes in the northeast started on Thursday and included all on-board announcements and views from 11 cameras focusing on the spectacular fjords, boat traffic around the ship, officers on the bridge and passengers strolling the decks and taking in the scenery.

The pictures were accompanied by natural sound of the ship’s humming engines and the waves breaking against the ship’s bow.

The voyage was broadcasted by NRK’s channel 2, which normally has a 4 percent share of the Norwegian TV market. During the live broadcast, it became Norway’s decidedly biggest channel with 36 percent of the market, according to NRK. The total number of people tuning in on NRK2 during the five days the “real reality show” lasted, reached almost 3 million, in a country with 4.9 million inhabitants.

The sensational popularity of the show triggered lengthy discussions on Twitter and Facebook and inspired spontaneous flag-waving from every house, cottage and lighthouse along the route, as well as gatherings by thousands of people at the 36 port calls.

When “MS Nordnorge” reached its turning point in Kirkenes on Wednesday, some 1500 of the local population gathered to welcome the crew, passengers, TV production crew and TV viewers with rock bands, brass bands, choirs and flags.

Norway is in a state of post-Hurtigruten dizziness and demands to repeat the event, next time in winter, are heard all over.

All the footage from the forward facing camera mounted on “MS Nordnorge” is available for full HD for download via BitTorrent on NRK, and it is free for everybody to share and remix the material. NRK has even a best competition for the best mashup project based on content from Hurtigruten. The first timelapse video is already out.