Japan Exclusive "Wii TV Channel"

[~Water Lucario~]

March 04, 2008 - Nintendo launched a new Wii Channel in its homeland Japan today according to IGN, called the Television Friend Channel, or Terebi no Tomo Channel, according to IGN. Like the Mii Contest Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, and etc. before it, it's available for download free of charge.

As you'd expect, the Channel adds a television program guide to Wii, with program information offered up to one week before airing and searches possible by genre and key words. Although it doesn't matter much to the rest of the world, it covers Chijou Digital, Chijou Analogue, BS Digital and BS Analogue broadcasts.

There's Nintendo style though, with a 'stamp' feature allowing you to highlight programs of interest with a Mii-themed stamp, and to be alerted to those highlighted by your friends and family. These are also tracked and the Wii will rate programs out of five stars based on viewer interest.

Some more neat functionality is employed, with the Wii able to send out alerts to mobile phones or email addresses, and the Wii Remote able to operate as a TV remote for channel surfing and volume control. Nintendo achieves this by having the Wii Sensor Bar send out a signal which is magically bounced off a wall and transmitted back to the TV.

Unfortunately, the chances of the Channel making its way to Australia might be slim, with Nintendo of Europe telling Eurogamer that there are "no plans for Europe."

Source: Aussie-Nintendo.

 

[Djura]

Being family friendly and all, I guess they won't show late-night porn.

What am I supposed to say? "Cool?"

 

[Skater Trainer]

Why would people want that? Sure I'd download it if it came out in the states, but I'll never use it, it will just be another Everybody vote channel to me, it just sits there and is only fun for 3 days. It would be cooler if we could find older shows that we wanted to see, if not its just another gimmick.

 

[~Water Lucario~]

Meh, these days most people have digital TV guides on their TVs anyway so as mentioned above I would not really use this channel.

 

[MidnightScott]

I don't care, there's nothing on TV anymore and my Satellite has a built in TV guide, pointless channel and a waste of space =D

 

[woot21]

Nintendo achieves this by having the Wii Sensor Bar send out a signal which is magically bounced off a wall and transmitted back to the TV.

That's right folks, TV remotes and Wiimotes work via magic.

Other than that, this sounds completely pointless stateside, but I guess the Japanese will like it.

woot21 out dawgs

 

[Lucariotwo]

Awsome, TV on Wii

 

[BCVM22]

Awsome, TV on Wii

No, it's TV listings on Wii.

 

[Spire]

The only reason I could think of getting it is to see what time those crazy Japanese game shows are on.

 

[noobers]

I only have basic cable, so I'll try it out.

 

[Sir Devious]

That's pretty stupid.
What next?
"Invent something and then send your idea to Nintendo so they can get better ideas for channels" channel? -_-

 

[BCVM22]

I only have basic cable, so I'll try it out.

No you won't. It's a Japan-only Channel, and television listings are far too diverse in America for such a Channel to be feasible here.

That's pretty stupid.
What next?
"Invent something and then send your idea to Nintendo so they can get better ideas for channels" channel? -_-

You what's even more questionable? When people complain about Nintendo putting niche material in Channels that are not only optional - read, OPTIONAL; not required - downloads, but aren't even available outside of Japan.

 

[fhqwhgads]

Awsome, TV on Wii

Yes, TV on Wii, because everyone's sick of all the movies they've been watching on their Wiis.

 

[Legendary Warrior]

Looks Good i wonder how many channels it might have(Tv channels like BBC)

might have Pokemon on it

 

[fhqwhgads]

might have Pokemon on it

Um...yeah. They don't dictate what's on TV, so shockingly, it will show up and *gasp* it won't have anything to do with Nintendo.