Following in the footsteps of the Forecast channel, the Wii News Channel, scheduled for release on January 27th, launched a whole 24 hours early. Anyone with their Wii connected to the internet can now go on and download the latest update, and get news from all over the world at their fingertips.

Right before leaving for work today, I saw my Wii blue disc slot light (what I lovingly refer to as a ‘blue light special’ every time I see it pop up) and decided to give the news channel a quick try before going to work. 15 minutes later, I realize that if I didn’t get my rear in gear, I was going to be in some trouble. I never would of expected that time would fly by so fast doing something as (dare I say) boring as reading the news, but this was exactly the case. It was quite interesting to be able to spin the globe around and find news stories from all over the world.

The whole channel controls like a dream, and the text is nice and clearly readable, even on my crappy SDTV with a composite connection. Oh, and the music in this is even more addicting than the music in the Forecast channel.

Have you downloaded the update and played around in the news channel yet? What are your impressions?