Radio and Telly UK - News Story

ITV’s HD channel, ITV 1 HD, is finally available on Sky Digital and Virgin Media.

ITV HD launched in June 2008 as an exclusive to Freesat, but now is available to a wider audience.

The ITV 1 HD  channel has recently become available on Freeview HD, and as of the 2nd of April 2010, ITV 1 HD is available on Channel 178 of Sky, and on channel 113 on Virgin Media.

ITV 1 HD also gets its own channel on Freesat, channel 119, after previously only being available via the Freesat red button.

The channel Men and Motors will cease to broadcast, to free up resources for the ITV1 HD channel.

ITV 1 HD in Scotland and Northern Ireland: ITV does not have a licence to broadcast in Scotland or Northern Ireland -The companies STV and UTV hold the Channel 3 licences for those regions (respectively). STV will apparently be launching their own HD channel in the future. As a result, ITV 1 HD is not available on Freesat Channel 118 in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The workaround appears to be to put in an English postcode into your Freesat receiver (postcodes decide which regions you’ll be assigned). You’ll lose regional programmes, but gain ITV 1 HD.