According to our sources, several studios are expecting the Wii to start offering movie streaming before the end of this year in the U.S. Any decision to support streaming on the Wii, however, will be hampered by the lack of a large enough storage solution for the Wii.

Many of the major studios are now picking up on the fact that digital distribution of content on gaming consoles is a growing business. Currently, both the Xbox 360 as well as the PlayStation 3 support movie streaming and storage for playback.

With the largest installed user base, studios are excited about the prospect of being able to stream content on the Wii platform. Currently, the console itself is able to handle the decoding necessary for streaming, but the lack of big enough storage solutions could be a major roadblock in it being successful.

Rumors have hinted at a new storage expansion for the Wii, but Nintendo has denied that they are working on any sort of storage expansion for the Wii. Many Wii owners continue to complain about the lack of a large mass storage option for the Wii. Instead, Wii owners are forced to use SD cards, despite the fact that the system does offer USB ports.

The latest whispers we hear are suggesting that Nintendo may be planning to show off a Wii hard drive expansion unit at E3 later this year. Hmmmm…that sounds like the same thing that we were hearing last year before E3.