The hackers who created the Wii Homebrew Channel have made the channel functional on the Wii U, according to a post on the group's website, HackMii.
The newest version of the Homebrew Channel (HBC) can be installed on both the Wii and Wii U, though it only works on the latter when the console is in Wii Mode.
In the post, user "dhewg" said that although the Homebrew Channel is far from being ready for use in the Wii U's regular mode, the Wii hacker community may be able to crack the code from working inside Wii Mode.
According to "dhewg," the last version of the HackMii Installer, used to access the Homebrew Channel, was routed by Nintendo when the company found and fixed the operating system exploit used to install the channel. The channel is only blocked on the Wii U, as a Wii system update was never released to patch the exploit.
Installation of the Homebrew Channel voids the console's warranty, as Nintendo considers the channel unauthorized software.