The provision of digital services into the home just got that bit more complicated in Japan, when Nintendo announced that next generation Wii boxes with be web enabled to allow free to view digital TV viewing via the Wii games console!
The TV content is likely to be on-demand and will be funded by advertising. If the model works the advent of subscription digital TV via a console can’t be too far away. Traditional broadcasters in Japan are said to be taking the threat from Wii very seriously, as are the subscription TV providers. And they are right to do so especially when you remember that fibre to the home broadband (FTTH) is prevalent in Japan (with average broadband speeds exceeding 90 Mb/sec), making delivery of the content into the home, via the web extremely easy.
A recent Deloitte report estimates that here in the UK, there is a Wii box in 1 in 4 homes, with a further 25% of households looking to get a Wii box in the next year. This means that their penetration already exceeds Virgin Media digiboxes and could soon surpass Sky boxes in UK homes.
So the competition to secure the entertainment hub in the home keeps on hotting up, but if the new Wii service were to come to the UK, it won’t get a free run there will be a variety of web enabled set-top boxes available, from both the pay TV providers (Sky and Virgin Media) and Freeview and Feesat. And in addition existing Wii homes would need to replace their old boxes with the next generation Wii box to take advantage of such a service, if it were to launch in the UK.