UK’s BBC iPlayer Coming To The Wii

UK Wii owners received some pretty exciting news this morning. It has been announced that the BBC iPlayer will becoming to the Wii sometime later this year. The initial reaction among US Wii owners might be “who cares?”, or “how does this benefit us?”.

For those who are unaware of of what the iPlayer is, let me give a brief synopsis. The iPlayer is a streaming, and downloading video service provided by the BBC. BBC viewers are able to stream their favorite shows and watch them on their computers.

The iPlayer has been catching on like wildfire, ever since its’ 2007 Christmas release. Over 42 million pieces of media have been accessed since its’ launch, and there’s even talk about ISP bandwidth problems due to its’ use.

When the iPlayer comes to the Wii, it will be accessed via the Internet Channel. Early test versions are available to license-fee payers. Later versions are expected to hit sometime later this year

So, again this might be good for UK Wii owners but what about in the US. Well, there may not be any releases for us, but you can bet streaming media providers will be looking hard at the iPlayer-Wii combination. If it turns out to succeed, I would imagine it wouldn’t be long before we saw such a service come stateside. Just remember, an idea has to start from somewhere.