gdgt

Apparently not. I think that only works with game saves.

Weird. I know I've moved channels to the SD Card, and even played them from there, but I've never had an opportunity to try plugging that card into a different Wii to see if they worked. You'd think that there should be a way to log into the Wii Store and re-download the things you purchased.

And it looks like you're out of luck. Found this on Wikipedia:

Licensing

Downloaded content is licensed only to the console on which it was purchased, not to the purchaser. If the console malfunctions irreparably, the licenses are not transferable to a replacement console, and need to be re-purchased. Nintendo advise that "Unfortunately, it is not possible to transfer any Virtual Console or WiiWare licenses to a new console. When you purchase a Virtual Console or WiiWare game, you are technically only purchasing the license for that game on the console it is downloaded to. You do not retain the license for that game on other consoles that you may purchase.".

en.wikipedia.org­/wiki­/Wii­_Shop­_Channel

That said, there's got to be some sort of hack out there that will allow you to backup your games, but it probably voids your warranty or some such nonsense.

I already think it's out of warranty anyway. As you say, there are probably homebrew solutions. I'll have to dig deeper on the internet :)