Nintendo planning Wii TV beyond Japan

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata claims that the Wii’s new video service – the Wii-no-Ma Channel – is being considered for overseas countries.

Launched today in Japan, the advertising-based TV streaming service is a collaborative effort by both Nintendo and media group Dentsu, aimed to keep continuous expansion of [the] gaming population.”

Iwata, speaking in a video broadcast, said that the Wii-no-Ma service is available only in Japan at the start, but the overseas deployment is under planning in the future.”

Today, Wii owners in Japan can download the free service from the Wii Shopping Channel, giving them access to original video content. Plans are afoot to introduce legacy content from a string of major Tokyo networks, while the content can also be accessed to the DSi for portable viewing.

As Japanese videogames, anime or manga are very favoured all over the world, we also anticipate a great possibility of same spread for video programmes,” said Iwata.

We believe it is necessary to propose to make those who do not currently neither play videogames nor feel like pouring energies for playing them to keep at least in contact with videogames, along with the deployment of mainstream videogames,” he added.