New iPlayer Channel for Wii next week

By Robert Purchese Published 13 November, 2009

Faster! Full-screen! High quality! Radio.

Nintendo and the BBC are launching an entire Wii iPlayer Channel next Wednesday, 18th November.

The improved player will offer radio on demand and a full-screen user interface. There are promises of the service being "faster" and "high quality", but the statement doesn't go into detail.

David Yarnton, boss of Nintendo UK, said that features like the iPlayer as well as the news and weather channels give Wii owners "another reason to turn on their console every day".

Apparently the original Wii iPlayer has served around 900,000 programmes.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Arcadiian #1 2 years ago

    BBC iPlayer would have been so much better on 360 than any of the new updates. D:

  • KujiGhost #2 2 years ago

    Amen. Why can't this happen?

  • INSOMANiAC #3 2 years ago

    Ill be able ot finally watch Iplayer in a decent quality on my TV hopefully, I have it on ps3 but it stutters every ten seconds due to me having a 500gig western digital harddrive

  • wizlon #4 2 years ago

    Why don't they make this into a channel?

    EDIT: Oh thanks Eurogamer, for updating your article and making me look like a tool.
    Edited by 1 at 13/11/09 @ 15:57

  • QPRobbie #5 2 years ago

    It is a channel. Eurogamer haven't described it properly.

    http://ww w.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news...
    Edited by 1 at 13/11/09 @ 15:27

  • StooMonster #6 2 years ago

    wizlon: they are making it into a Wii Channel, next week.

    480p streaming should be pretty good for Wii.

    Personally I am hoping for Xbox 360 version with 720p support before too long.

  • jim1975 #7 2 years ago

    love it on the iphone.

  • linea #8 2 years ago

    Thirded on the old 'iplayer on the 360' wishes.

    Given the 360 Sky deal and the Murdochs' vitriolic hatred of the BBC and everything it stands for though I can't say I'm holding my breath....

    I dearly hope to be proved wrong though.

  • jim1975 #9 2 years ago

    @Linea

    i have to admit im with murdock on the BBC hate train when i have to hand over my £142 a year to watch the 3 programs i watch on the BBC.

  • Retroid #10 2 years ago

    Excellent stuff, definitely a channel I'll be downloading! \o/

    Do wish it'd appear on 360 too though, of course.

  • oceanmotion #11 2 years ago

    Microsoft would make no money from iPlayer on Xbox 360. The BBC are not allowed to charge for it and neither are Microsoft who would have to make it available to Silver subscribers. Absolutely no chance. Sad annoying truth. MS you greedy gits!

  • Bravestinsane #12 2 years ago

    @jim1975

    So you would prefer Sky to fuck up the entire television industry then?

    You realise he is doing exactly what he is saying BBC shouldn't be doing, by buying up foreign tv rights with our money.

    I personally don't care i like watching those shows.

    But SKY is far more evil then the BBC could ever be, they use their monopoly to get what they want, SKY SPORTS is an example, they out bid terrestrial tv for LOST, 24, Prison Break to name a few. In which it is IMPOSSIBLE for those channels to compete.

    Murdoch is a hypocritical piece of shit who uses his money and greed to try and get what he wants not what the customer wants. I personally love the BBC the Iplayer is absolutely fantastic far better than any other online catch up service.

    Quite frankly i despise murdoch and would quite happily dance on his grave
    Edited by 1 at 13/11/09 @ 16:32

  • varsas #13 2 years ago

    Cool and about time! :)

  • Sonic_D #14 2 years ago

    Yes most of the shows on the main BBC channels are shite, but pretty much all the fringe shows I have seen shows I enjoy are on the BBC (or sometimes C4/E4). And anyway if BBC3 didn't exist we would never have had Sean Lock's 15 Storeys High, possibly the best comedy this decade (even tho they later shafted it, abruptly ending after 2 seasons and re-airing season 2 only once at stupid times like 2am or 3am).

  • Luckyjim #15 2 years ago

    Will it look as good as the PS3 version? My wife uses the iplayer quite a lot. However, as my Wii is right next to my PS3, and easier for her to understand, I would rather her use that. Video quality will be a big factor though.

  • Dan234 #16 2 years ago

    @jim1975

    i have to admit im with murdock on the BBC hate train when i have to hand over my £142 a year to watch the 3 programs i watch on the BBC.

    Try a week of Spanish TV, which doesn't have a licence fee. I'll be round afterwards to mop up your brains which will have probably dribbled out your ears and fallen onto the floor.

  • StooMonster #17 2 years ago

    lord: if you're right about that being the reason for no iPlayer on Xbox 360 then that sucks balls.

    But you're wrong about Sky they do make some original programming (in the loosest sense): Gladiators, those crap singing shows with skool-kidz, Ross Kemps romps, all that old shite that is on the Xbox player ... but they did co-fund (at least the mini-series and season 1) Battlestar Galactica.

  • StooMonster #18 2 years ago

    beemoh: I disagree, there might be some good stuff but there is much more terrible stuff than here in UK. Moreover, US television has poor presentation that is now so bad, drives me nuts, when I was last over there (couple of weeks ago) we just stuck with Hulu and Netflix. Even in 'quality shows' animated DOGs burst up in front of the programme you are watching (sometimes with tiny people walking on/off), the advert breaks are super frequent, and the end credits of the previous show run in a PiP box in the corner over the opening segment of the next show (get more adverts in that way).

    Also funny when you view BBC News website from abroad how it has adverts, and all the iPlayers shows become the 'World Service' so at least I don't miss all the Radio 4. Saying that, it's good fun that BBC Radio 1 is on US satellite radio but timeshifted to local time, so one can be driving along a sunny coast listening to the travel troubles of people driving home in the British autumn weather.
    Edited by 2 at 13/11/09 @ 20:33

  • Sneerk #19 2 years ago

    So will this be able to play videos outside of the UK?

  • spookyzombie #20 2 years ago

    I'm assuming that this will be a free channel as it's a BBC product.

  • Dan234 #21 2 years ago

    @beemoh:

    There's a whole lot of rubbish that doesn't make it across. The good stuff is made because there's a market big enough to support it and foreign sales, but if you were to get rid of the fee in the UK then I doubt the same could be said to be true. Going back to Spanish TV all the local productions are endless celebrity gossip shows, Oprah Winfrey style shows, and bad copies of foreign series which are pulled half-way through because they don't get the audience (e.g. their version of Life on Mars).
    Edited by 1 at 14/11/09 @ 10:11

  • DaDon123456 #22 2 years ago

    Wonder how this will compare against the PS3 version?

  • IronCladChicken #23 2 years ago

    @DaDon123456
    Why?

  • hilts #24 2 years ago

    I have to say my old wii player is crap whilst my ps3 one is fantastic ! So good news for wii only people if they are improving it IMO

  • Lawlost #25 2 years ago

    This will only be free in the UK, sorry to those not in this green and pleasant land.
    Edited by 1 at 14/11/09 @ 21:19

  • Lawlost #26 2 years ago

    Ps I hate Sky Murdoch would love to see the BBC wither and die, we really are very fortunate to have such a great broadcaster. The licence fee is peanuts for what we get. The Sun now pro conservative and suddenly the tories hate the BBC what a coincidence....

  • Razz #27 2 years ago

    When are the console iplayers going to support HD? :(

  • biru #28 2 years ago

    Above seconded. Add to that:

    -live streaming
    -a proper search function

    Aside from those niggles, PS3 iPlayer is incredibly nifty. Hope the Wii one works out well too.

  • Fixxxer #29 2 years ago

    The letters I, T and V say you're massively, horribly wrong.

  • green_nifta #30 2 years ago

    The preview video for it on the Nintendo Channel states the picture quality is massively improved to the previous Wii version on the Internet Channel. Even if they can match the quality of the image on the Nintendo Channel I'll be very happy indeed. 24 hours to go :)

  • lisa_qld #31 2 years ago

    Sounds good, but when is this being rolled out ?

  • Dan234 #32 2 years ago

    @green_nifta: The US and Japan Nintendo Channels changed codecs from .3gp to Mobiclip. Europe is still on .3gp. I suppose the iPlayer channel will use one of the codecs already in use by the BBC (meaning the same quality), I can't see them doing another version of everything just for the Wii.

  • Lawlost #33 2 years ago

    hello anyone tried this out yet. I had a flashing blue wii this morning (not a sentence I ever though I would utter) so assume the channel is ready for download.

  • electrolite #34 2 years ago

    Picture and sound quality is pretty good. However, just tried to run the most recent The Thick Of It and it crashed to the extent I had to unplug my Wii!

  • Lawlost #35 2 years ago

    Just watched the first 5 mins of Top Gear pretty good picture and sound vast improvement on previous effort. Anyone out there with a PS3 and Wii who could do a quick compare and contrast and let us know what you think.