The lamb-athon seems to have been inspired by famous slow TV broadcasts in Norway, several of which RUV references on its website. Aside from sheep-shearing and knitting marathons, Norway's public television network NRK once broadcast 12 hours of wood burning , and in 2011 it showed 130 hours of a cruise ship sailing up the Norwegian coast. Earlier this year, BBC Four announced it was getting in on the act, with a series of slow TV broadcasts in the UK, including a two-hour canal journey, and a three-hour tour of the National Gallery without any voiceover or extra sound effects.