PlayOn launches on the Wii U to let you watch videos from sites like Hulu, MTV and HBO GO

PlayOn, a service that lets you stream content from sites like Hulu, HBO GO and Comedy Central via your PC to your TV and mobile devices, has arrived on the Wii U.

Four and a half years ago, PlayOn first began as a way to use the PC to bring streaming content to “dumb” gaming and mobile devices. Now, even as these devices evolve, there’s still a gap in availability due to artificial restrictions — for example, a Hulu Plus paid membership is required for viewing content on certain screens.

This, in addition to the fact that the Wii U doesn’t support Flash, makes a ton of sites inaccessible on the gaming console. PlayOn essentially works around these limitations by converting Flash and Silverlight videos from your PC to HTML 5.

“The beauty of the Wii U is the tablet-like gamepad that becomes a second screen for watching video or browsing content and options,” says PlayOn CEO Jeff Lawrence. “So now, instead of waggling a Wii remote, you can use the touchscreen controls to browse PlayOn channels and select from the long list of online content we’re making accessible through the Wii U console.”

For non-Wii U owners, PlayOn supports 19 other devices, including the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPhone, Android phone, Roku, Kindle Fire and more. Unfortunately for Mac owners, PlayOn only supports PCs, but also can work with Bootcamp and Parallels.

➤ PlayOn for Wii U (free for a year, PC only)

Image credit: Kiyoshi Ota / Getty Images