Web TV on Nintendo Wii?

Nintendo is inching into the online video market with new partner Dentsu, Japan’s largest advertising firm, with plans to offer free and pay-per-view videos on the Wii game console, according to a recent AFP news group report. The game manufacturer, slurking in the steps of trailblazers Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox (who offer large libraries of original and syndicated video), plans to focus on content specifically made for Wii’s Wiinoma Channel with a Japan-only release in Spring 2009 and no announced plans for international distribution.

“Nintendo and Dentsu shall use the environment surrounding the Wii

so that living rooms with Wii-ready TVs would become more of a fun area for communication among families and friends,” the firms said in a translated joint statement. The companies are soliciting pitches for original Wii videos, which will be primarily family-friendly. With reports of major Japanese media companies (including Fuji Television and Nippon Television) teaming up to build a secure content distribution system for the Wii, we have high hopes for what Nintendo has in store for Web Television in 2009.