Nintendo to launch Wii TV
Wiinoma service to hit Japan this Spring, with free cartoons, cookery shows and games
Nintendo has unveiled plans to launch a new online on-demand television channel through the Wii.
The service, entitled Wiinoma, as reported by The Times, would see advertising supported programmes broadcast throughout Japan's online console audience, with the later possibility of pay-per-view titles also being offered through the Wii Points system.
Wiinoma's content, generated by Japan's biggest advertising agency Dentsu, will be "family-oriented", including cartoons, cookery shows and educational programmes as well as Brain Training-style quizzes. The service is set to launch in Japan this spring, however Nintendo is said to be "considering international expansion".
A senior executive at Fuji Television, Japan's biggest commercial broadcaster, commented that if plans by Nintendo to make the Wii "the centrepiece of the living room" took off in a meaningful way, then it would be "the stuff of television producers' nightmares".