One of Hollywood's top digital distribution executives thinks so.

In an interview I recently conducted with Curt Marvis, president of digital media for Lionsgate, for Variety's technotainment blog, he specifically mentioned the Wii as a huge opportunity for his studio to distribute movies and TV shows and said he thinks it'll happen this year:

The thing that is clearly a force in digital are the game devices. I think when we see the Wii come into the market with the ability to stream movies, which I think is maybe going to happen as soon as this year, I think that’s going to be a big marketplace for digital distribution.

While he certainly didn't say movies on the Wii are a sure thing, an executive in Marvis' position is the most likely to know what's being talked about and what's in the works.

Nintendo is already working on a limited video service for the Wii in Japan, with original content it's producing with ad agency Dentsu. But moving to the U.S. and adding Hollywood movies and TV shows would be a huge step.

If Nintendo does that, it could easily become a major player in the fast growing, albeit still small, online video business. Since they're connected to televisions, studios are counting on video game consoles to be a big part of that growth. Already, the Xbox 360's video marketplace is one of the biggest online movie distributors after iTunes. And Sony is aggressively trying to catch up, this week adding the last major media company that wasn't on board with its service, NBC Universal.

There are 16.2 million Wiis in the U.S. now, compared to 12.8 million Xbox 360s and 6.3 million Playstation 3s. So the Wii could effectively double the market. But it could do even more. Since the Wii is popular with so many non-traditional gamers, it's in more households that aren't as digital savvy as the typical 360 or PS3 household. So they're less likely to be downloading movies or otherwise accessing video from the Web. If the Wii's video service is exceptionally easy, it could bring millions of new customers to digital movie/TV distribution and prove a boon for Hollywood.

Of course, unlike the 360 and PS3, the Wii couldn't handle high definition content. More importantly, downloading a significant number of TV shows and movies would be difficult, given the console's lack of a hard drive (SD cards can only take you so far). A full video service would have to come with enhanced storage or be done via streaming (which would mean lower visual quality). It might not have been meaningless that Marvis said the Wii could soon "stream movies."

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Comments

I think that's going to be a big marketplace for digital distribution.

Posted by: Download Movies | September 15, 2009 at 01:35 AM

wii is a terrific work in hoolywood.it'll good for broadcasters,distributers and also for the consumer.
no need to store the stuff,one can watch it directly from the web.Soon,the Wii could effectively double the market.

Posted by: watch movies online | July 26, 2009 at 10:20 AM

Already, the Xbox 360's video marketplace is one of the biggest online movie distributors after iTunes. And Sony is aggressively trying to catch up, this week adding the last major media company that wasn't on board with its service, NBC Universal.
watch tv episodes online

Posted by: watch tv episodes | July 25, 2009 at 10:39 PM

I already watch videos on the wii using http://reeplay.it which allows to send any "free to web" video to the wii (and the iphone/ipod, btw) with just two mouseclicks

Posted by: joseph | March 13, 2009 at 12:51 PM

The Diffusion Group predicted last year that 2009 would see Nintendo rolling out a Wii-based streaming video service. While it is still just rumored, the chances we'll see one before the end of the year are very strong.

Posted by: eggman | March 13, 2009 at 09:56 AM

Online Video Distribution is a very real opportunity for studios and broadcasters. In fact, many studios and broadcasters have already started to adopt direct to consumer distribution models. Bob Iger was quoted just a week ago:

...Iger told analysts at a Deutsche Bank conference that media companies are under pressure to find ways to compete in a Web-based entertainment arena that is changing their business, possibly for good.
"We've also seen a pretty dramatic shift in how people consume entertainment" with computers and mobile devices becoming more important to most viewers than television, Iger said.

"The computer is a very important place to entertain people, and if we don't occupy space on those devices, others will," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN0350871620090304?rpc=44

Whether it is on a gaming platform like the Wii or Xbox, a PC platform or stand alone players (TVs, Roku, etc), this market is coming on strong.

I personally like the flexability of the PC platform because you can do so much with it where other platforms are too limited. However, there are price challenges with getting cost alignment. I know it is being addressed as I am one of the guys working on this problem, but will the stars align? No one really knows.

Streaming content poses some challenges due to the high bandwidth requirements to keep the stream steady and prevent dropping frames or stuttering.

Download models show promise, but don't offer instant gratification.

There are some hybrid models that show promise.

I have my own blog series running on the technology that is making this possible.

Posted by: Jay Taylor | March 13, 2009 at 07:57 AM

Reggie alluded to a storage solution that's "better" than a hard drive. Nintendo hasn't followed up on this all in the months since Reggie first said that. If they time whatever the heck this is in time for a video service like this, it would work very well. But I have no idea what could be a better storage solution than a hard drive...

Posted by: chicobo329 | March 12, 2009 at 07:47 PM