BBC Brings iPlayer To Wii; ISP Grumbles As Traffic Grows To 17.2 Million Streams, Downloads In March

The BBC is launching a version of its iPlayer TV catch-up for Nintendo’s Wii console, the broadcaster announced with the game maker at MipTV. The service will be offered as a beta via the console’s Opera-powered Internet Channel web browser at the regular web address, even though Nintendo will next month enable dedicated third-party channels via its WiiWare program.

It’s the latest platform for the iPlayer brand as the BBC continues its £131 million ($262 million) program to digitize production and multi-platform output. An iPhone version was released last month, one will appear on Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) in May, a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95 version is due and it’s thought the BBC could offer the service through iTunes now that iTunes Movie Rentals has added expiry windows to the software.

The BBC also announced iPlayer got 17.2 million streams and downloads in March and has seen over 42 million views since its Christmas launch, marking a 25 percent month-on-month growth in usage. But Tiscali called for a “BBC tax” to offset a resulting increase in its network traffic. More detail at our sister site paidContent:UK