Late in December, Nintendo announced they'd be launching just such a video-on-demand channel for the Wii in Japan this year. They've partnered with Dentsu Inc., a leading advertising firm in Japan, to produce original programming for the channel that'll be ad-supported, and they'll also be soliciting other businesses to produce original content as well. And according to a report by the Times Online (via Shacknews), it's all bad news for the Japanese television industry.
According to one senior executive at Fuji Television (the biggest commercial broadcaster in Japan), the prospect of a successful Wii video channel -- one where Nintendo's goal of making the Wii the "centerpiece of the living room" became a reality -- would be "the stuff of television producers' nightmares." The same executive said this is particularly bad timing for such a threat to Japanese TV broadcasting to emerge, as the industry has been criticized for relying "too heavily on repeats and celebrity formats." An original slate of programming designed specifically for Wii owners could offer the sort of variety that may draw television viewers in.
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