We are excited to announce that PlayOn officially supports the Nintendo Wii -- in Beta. That means the almost 25 million Wii owners can watch Hulu, Netflix, CBS, CNN, ESPN, Amazon VOD, YouTube, AdultSwim, Crackle and much more on their TV, from their couch, using their Wii Remote. Here is what it looks like:

This is the first device where we have control over the User Interface, and we have tried to make it as intuitive, user friendly and pretty as possible. You be the judge.

PlayOn for the Wii is available for a free, full-featured 14-day trial, and after that licenses are available for a one-time fee of $39.99. That same license (and the same software download) will support your PS3, Xbox 360 and other DLNA devices.

How it works: PlayOn uses the "Internet Channel" on the Wii - so if you don't have this, you will need to get it. After downloading and installing PlayOn on your PC, you then open the "Internet Channel" web browser on your Wii, press the "WWW" button and enter playon.tv as the web address. You should add this page to your Wii Browser "Favorites" to make it easy to access in the future. 

That's it! You can click on Hulu and find your favorite shows, or Netflix and watch that movie you have talking about seeing - right from your couch and Wiimote.

Wii support has been one of the most requested features from our users, and we are thrilled to offer this Beta release to folks who would like to give it a whirl.

PlayOn supports the broadest selection of Internet-to-TV premium content, including Hulu, Nerflix, XBS, ESPN, CNN, Amazon VOD, and YouTube. And the selection of niche content is growing daily via the open PlayOn Plugin architecture, which currently includes:

• Adultswim
• Cartoon Network
• Channel9
• Crackle
• Food Network
• GameTrailers.com
• HGTV
• Local Files
• NBA
• NFL
• Southpark Studios
• Spike TV
• Podcasts (OPML Player) -- with dozens of available feeds!
• International channels: Danish DR and Spanish TVE

PlayOn works on a broad range of devices including PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Moxi HD DVR, VuNow, and many other DLNA-compliant devices.

We hope you enjoy the Wii Beta and encourage you to send us feedback at support@playon.tv.

It's back. Amazon Video On Demand is back up and running (though still in Beta) in PlayOn. Give it a whirl. And - give us feedback on what you think support@playon.tv.

Based on our quick survey of PlayOn users, 37.5% are replacing cable/satellite with PlayOn while 62.5% of us are supplementing our current programming with Internet video through PlayOn. To me, that says OTT (Over-the-Top), or taking Internet Video to the TV, is growing the overall TV-consumption pie. That is good news for the cable companies. This 37.5% actually compares to a predicted 30% by TDG (since we were only surveying OTT-users, we had to elimiate the segment from TDG that said they would not consume OTT). Pretty close on! Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey!

A recent TGD study, as shared with us by Will Richmond in his VideoNuze newsletter, says that 20% of us will replace our cable/satellite subscription with Over The Top Broadband (OTT) services, while 17% of us will use OTT and keep Cable/Satellite. 29% of us could go either way (depending on the price point). You can check out the research here. What I want to know - is what are you using PlayOn for -- REPLACING your cable/satellite subscription or SUPPLEMENTING it? Take our quick 1-question survey to let us know - I'll publish the results here in a few days!

The latest release .3496 has been posted. It is a good one and we are excited about it. It offers a new free trial for anyone and everyone - so if you got short-changed with a service outage during your last trial - here's your chance to try it again. Oh - and speaking of service outages, we fixed most of those issues in this release as well - so PlayOn should be much more stable and easy to enjoy now. Also in the release is a new PlayOn Settings chanel where you can get info right on your console (no need to head back to the PC) and the ability to reboot your PlayOn server from the console. We upgraded the Local File Sharing (beta) - so it should be more stable. It still isn't where we want it to be, but we are getting it there. Of course - feedback is welcome support@playon.tv. Hope you enjoy the enhancements - and give PlayOn another shot.

Have you been implemented your fair share of online customer support solutions?  Do you know all about supporting software? Are you entrepreneurial, resourceful, reliable and friendly? Are you passionate about PlayOn? We may have THE job for you -- if you are a Technical Support Guru and know about self-serve support systems as well as the best ways to manage online support, let us know -- we need to know how we can make our technical support scale as we grow! If you are interested (or know someone who would be great for this), email us at jobs@playon.tv.

Get 'em while they're hot! Our CTO and apparently t-shirt designer extraordinare has created some pretty cool PlayOn gear. You can get it at our new store PlayOn Gear.

Check it out - and if you have any suggests for modifications that would improve the appearance of something - let us know. Thanks.

We've gotten lots of questions lately about support for the Wii. Yes - it is delayed (sorry!), but it is coming - and soon. We anticipate releasing it at the end of July/ early August (so - in 5 weeks or so). Why the delay? Well...we had some other priorities creep in (bugs, new device support, and the like), and we want to make sure the interface really rocks. This takes time. As you may know - we have no (very, very little) control over the interface for the PS3 or Xbox360 - so while not as pretty, from a development-perspective, this makes things a little easier. On the Wii, we have free reign over interface, and so we want to make sure it is great ... and this always takes longer than anticipated. We will keep you posted if there is another delay, but we plan to get it in your hands as soon as possible.

From our surveys and in forum posts, Local Media Browsing has been the #1 requested feature, and now it's here...

PlayOn announces LOCAL MEDIA BROWSING (in beta)

You can now enjoy your digital media throughout your home with PlayOn. You can see all of your digital photos on your PLAYSTATION 3 or Xbox 360, listen to your stored music, and watch videos stored on your PC through the same PlayOn Digital Media Server you have been using to enjoy Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube. There is no need to maintain a separate Digital Media Server -- how is that for convenient?

Stream the MP3s stored on your computer to your living room, watch home movies stored on your office PC in your bedroom, or flip through that slide show of your summer vacation in your media room -- all with PlayOn.

To upgrade (free for licensed and trial users), simply download the latest at www.themediamall.com/playon/upgrade. Please note that this feature is still in beta - so it is only going to get better. And - if you have some feedback you want to share - please do so by posting on our forum.

If your trial has already expired... do not fret. We have also opened up a New FREE 14-day trial. We want everyone to be able to try PlayOn's Local Media Browsing beta (http://www.themediamall.com/playon/download).

So - check it out and let us know what you think.

It has been a wild winter for PlayOn, and an even wilder one for me personally. I delivered our 2nd daughter in November - 3 and 1/2 months early at only 2lbs. She remained in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for 100 long days. You can learn a little more about my daughter Amelia (and the rest of my family)by watching a local newscast on our situation:

Before "Millie" was born, I knew little about the March of Dimes. They provided valuable assistance to us, including organizing the Thanksgiving dinner shown in the news story. Importantly, they fund research to prevent prematurity and help babies born too early or sick.

The MediaMall/PlayOn team has been super supportive of me and my family. I am grateful that I work with such a kind, caring, and progressive group of folks.

I'd love to have your support as well as we help raise money for the March for Babies -- to ensure every baby has a healthy start.

Thanks for your support!