Customers of the Virgin Media TV service will soon be offered Sky Sports 1 HD, Sky Sports 2 HD and Sky Movies  HD.

Virgin’s HD channel lineup needs a boost, and the addition of Sky’s premium sport and movies channels is something that Virgin’s customers have been calling for, for a while.

The deal between Sky and Virgin for the HD content forms part of a deal that sees Virgin selling off their TV channels Bravo, Virgin 1, Living and Challenge to Sky.

No news as yet on when these channels will be coming to Virgin customers, of how much extra Virgin customers will have to pay for Sky’s HD content. Sky customers currently pay a £10 a month premium to watch the 40 Sky HD channels.

We’ll update you here, and on our digital TV podcast when we have more.

Sky is about to launch the UK’s first 3D news channel.

The service launches this coming Thursday, the 6th May at 9.00pm. This cunningly coincides with Sky’s coverage of the General Election. There’s already a placeholder for Sky News HD on Sky channel 517.

Sky News HD will bring the total of Sky’s HD channels to 40, and they’re still planning to get to 50 by the end of the year.

More on Sky HD: Sky HD Explored

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.

Sky is now offering a one Terabyte Sky+ HD box. This increases storage space for TV shows by four times.

The new Sky+ HD 1TB box offers all of the features of the normal  Sky+HD box (including Sky Anytime), but with much recording space – up to  240 hours of HD programming.

The 1 Terabtye Sky+ HD box is available now for £249. Full details at sky.com/1TB

Just a reminder that Sky is currently offering the standard Sky+ HD box for free, with a £25 M & S voucher for a limited time. A great time to get the HD box even if you don’t sign to the HD pack yet. Details on our Sky+ HD page or at Sky’s HD site.

Sky has today updated its offers, and there have been some odd changes.

For a start, the traditional Sky+ box seems to have vanished from the box lineup. Also, you can now only get the basic Sky box as a “multi-room” second box.

This means that the only box open to new customers, is Sky’s top-of-the-range Sky+ HD box (pictured).

You can get the Sky+ HD box for free, provided you sign to Sky’s £10-a-month HD service. Otherwise, take the Sky+ HD box without the HD channels for a one-off £49.

The intention here is clear – by withdrawing all but the HD box, it’s a push to get Sky HD boxes in as many homes as possible, hoping that as more of us get an HD-ready telly, we’ll want to get some HD programming on our tellies.

Still – while Sky’s doing this, it’s good news for new customers who get a top-end box that’s HD-enabled and with the new-style programme guide for nothing – making now a great time to sign up.

Details of Sky’s latest offer: Free Sky+ HD box. There’s also a £25 Marks and sparks voucher on offer too…