AP syndicates content to Wii

Starting this weekend, Nintendo Wii owners will have something new to do, while they play games: read. The Associated Press has syndicated news feeds to the broadband-enabled console.

by Kristina Knight

The AP will provide photos and news clips to Nintendo, which in turn will create the Nintendo Wii Channel. News will be served up in several different languages, however Japanese news will come from a different agency. The site will be branded as an AP site and there will be no advertising on the site.

According to Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing for Nintendo said (via Chicago Tribune) news will be displayed by an interactive map and can be navigated with the Wii controller. "The beauty of it is it zooms in and out of areas of the world," she said. "So if you really want to focus on regional news or national news versus international, you just blow up the map of the U.S."

The console already includes content channels like the Wii Weather Channel. Users who have a broadband connection can receive updated local weather information and can then use the information to set weather conditions for some sports titles. The AP content is not expected to be incorporated into the Wii games.

The AP is in talks with Nintendo to provide more multi-media applications.

By the end of 2006, Nintendo had shipped 4 million Wii consoles. Worldwide sales accounted for $3.19 million.