Freeview have recently claimed that 50% of UK homes will be able to watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup in high-definition on Freeview. This follows an earlier announcement by ITV that a full HD version of the channel will be available from the end of this year.

ITV has reached an agreement with the BBC to lease digital terrestrial bandwidth. The first area to receive ITV in HD will be Manchester with the services being rolled out throughout major cities after this including Bradford, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Liverpool.

Unfortunately, in order to watch ITV in HD, new set top boxes will be required with new technology standards, as well as HD LCD TV or Plasma TV – however it is anticipated that these set top boxes will be available to purchase later in the year.

The BBC will be launching their own Freeview HD service soon. This is due for launch later this year but is already currently available to Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat customers.