The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) is making its BBC iPlayer service compatible with the Nintendo Wii, allowing the console access programming from several BBC television channels and radio stations made available for viewing online.  In other words, the Wii will soon boast a video streaming service, at least in the United Kingdom.

There are no fees requires to view BBC programming from the prior seven days on the Wii through the iPlayer website.  While PC users can choose to download television programs from the BBCi Player for later viewing ("loan" periods are usually 30 days), we don't expect to Wii to benefit from video downloads thanks to its glaring lack of appreciable hard drive storage (or video playback functionality for that matter...).

Access to the BBC iPlayer website requires the Internet Channel to be installed on the Wii, naturally.  However, the BBC expresses interest in being able to make iPlayer available without needing the Internet Channel in the future; perhaps they intend to work with Nintendo to develop an iPlayer installer for the console, like the one for PC users.  The iPlayer for the Wii is pegged as "beta" for the time being, while the BBC finalizes appropriate encoding rates and video resolutions.