Sky, Virgin Media and ITV have confirmed that the HD version of the entertainment channel will be coming to both company's HD services from 2 April.

The news, which will be welcomed by football fans in England and Wales means for the first time, the World Cup will be able to be watched in HD in the UK.

"The addition of ITV1 HD from 2nd April means Sky+HD homes across all ITV regions will be able to watch World Cup matches live in HD, as well as other major ITV shows such as Law and Order: UK, The Prisoner, Foyles War, Lewis, Survival with Ray Mears, and Britain’s Got Talent". Sky said in a statement.

Sky has said that it will also be launching two lesser known channels - Hallmark Channel HD (on 28 June) and Sky Sports 4 HD (on 29 April) to bring the total available to 40 HD channels

Not to be out done by the announcement, Virgin Media has also confirmed that it will be getting ITV HD from the 2 April also.

Virgin has also said that some of ITV1's HD content will also be available on demand via ITV Net Player on Virgin Media's TV platform. The popular TV on demand service saw over 8 million views of ITV content in January alone.