As reported earlier this week, the BBC plans to develop a Nintendo Wii version of its iPlayer online TV viewing software. The announcement left me scratching my head a bit. After all, aren't Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation3 more obvious choices? Both video game consoles are already designed to be multimedia devices, with optical disc drives and access to online media.

Now the BBC is explaining why it decided to go with the Nintendo Wii. The Wii supports branded channels. In other words, if the BBC wanted to make video content available on the other platforms, the software interface would have to look pretty much like all the other Xbox 360 or PS3 channels. Nintendo, on the other hand, is offering the BBC a dedicated channel which will mimic the iPlayer interface already available through a web browser.

[via Joystiq]