The Terebi no Tomo Channel, literally meaning [Your] Television’s Friend Channel, is a Japan-exclusive Wii channel that acts as an interactive TV guide for the television. The channel is free and has several interesting features.

The service uses the G-Guide television programming system which lets users search for programs by title, other key words and by genre. The interface lists a week's worth of shows which can be filtered in different ways, such as by age, time, and which shows console users have selected to watch. When switching to a week view, the listings page zooms out to a 3D overview, showing a line of sheets that each represent a day of the upcoming week.

The guide has Mii integration, allowing family members to stamp their face on a TV show they are interested in watching. What's more, the channel can e-mail users a reminder before a stamped show starts via the Wii Message Board and setting up the functionality within the channel under a registered Mii name. It will also keep track of what all other channel users have stamped and popular programs will be rated with a high star rating.

The most intriguing aspect of this channel is that it allows Wii Remote control of your actual TV set. Functions are limited to basic channel selection and volume adjustment. Since the Wii does not emit the infrared signal that is required to operate televisions, Nintendo achieved this by sending the television command from the Wii sensor bar, which bounces off the Wii Remote's pointer head and back to the television. Nintendo recommends placing the sensor bar near to where the TV set receives it normal remote control information for optimal performance of this.

There are no current plans to release this channel in North America or Europe. Nintendo has previously suggested that such a channel is not required in those territories, as viable electronic TV guides exist already.

Steven Rodriguez contributed to this article.