A 24-hour Finnish TV show dedicated entirely to the live progress of a dog and her six newborn puppies is drawing millions of viewers.

As well as a 24-hour webcam, Pentulive (Puppy Live) includes live evening chat sessions with the dogs’ breeder, a podcast and an instant notification service that updates followers on the puppies’ progress – from their birth to weigh-ins and first nail trims – for eight weeks.

This is the sixth season of the hit show by the broadcaster Yle and the latest contribution to the growing Nordic cultural phenomenon of “slow TV”.

The trend started in Norway in 2009 with Bergensbanen, a seven-hour train journey broadcast on NRK , and was followed by SVT’s Den stora älgvandringen (The Great Moose Migration) in Sweden, which features unnarrated glimpses of moose from the north of the country making their annual journey to summer grazing grounds.

The seven lagotto romagnolo puppies with their mother, Hilkka.…