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Ok, this news is about a week old but we do receive a number of emails asking why ITV HD is not available on UTV or STV, the NI/Scottish regional ITV channel.

Both UTV and STV turned down the opportunity to receive ITV HD when it was offered to them a few months ago, and since then the only way to access ITV HD from those regions was to change your postcode to an alternative ITV region, not ideal!

Since then however Freesat have added ITV London on channel 977 as a default, so anyone can now go to that channel for ITV HD when an appropriate HD programme is on. Great! Much easier than changing postcode each time!

This year will see the UK’s first ever HD Christmas from Freesat with a feast of high-definition programme highlights. A whole range of Christmas films, comedies, dramas and family entertainment will be brought to life with vivid HD picture and sound.

BBC HD (channel 108)

BBC HD will be showcasing a huge range of family films over the Christmas period, meaning viewers won’t have to rely on the family Blu-ray player for a dose of HD entertainment. Films include:

The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Brothers Grimm
The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
Starter For Ten
Toy Story 2
Wallace and Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death

The BBC HD Channel will keep the nation laughing with the return of some comedy favorites, including the welcome return of all-new The Royle Family and Gavin and Stacey, all in HD;

After You’ve Gone Christmas Special
Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special
Lead Balloon
The Royle Family Christmas Special

Other festive HD highlights from the BBC will include the Shrek The Halls Christmas Special from everyone’s favourite green film star, the Christmas special of Strictly Come Dancing, and Michael Palin returning to bring the world to our screens in 80 Days Revisited. In addition Casanova, Doctor Who Prom, Lark Rise to Candleford, The 39 Steps and The Queen’s speech will all be available in HD on BBC HD Channel over Christmas.

ITV HD (via the red button on channel 103)

ITV HD will be showing a veritable feast of Christmas movies and entertainment, as well as top-drawer sport over the Christmas period and the finale of all-singing, all-dancing drama Britannia High.

Movie lovers will get to experience a range of blockbuster films in full HD, including;

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
True Lies
Ali G
Bird on a Wire
Meaning of Life

The drama won’t be limited to blockbuster films though, with ITV HD showing UEFA Champions League matches in HD, making every blade of grass, bead of sweat and even the odd tear, even more life like.

Now is a great time to own Freesat, so if you haven’t already taken the plunge, there’s still time before the big day!

Just in case you are not aware of our ITV HD TV Schedule, check it out, there are 8 programmes in high-definition over the next 2 weeks, which is quite a lot for ITV. Still lacking a certain depth of programming, but it’s better than what we’ve seen from them lately. Check it out!

Big thank you to Snoods for the updates…as always.

Just a reminder whilst we go through this quiet period with Freesat, that we’ve created a static page giving all the latest programme schedule details for ITV HD, seeing as ITV themselves still don’t have this information on their own site!

There has certainly been an increase in the number of programmes of late, so let’s hope it continues.

Visit the ITV HD Programme Schedule

Just for those that might not be aware, King Kong, Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson’s blockbuster remake of the seminal 1930s thriller, premieres on Saturday 6th September in high-definition (HD) on ITV HD.

Viewers can access ITV HD via the ‘red button’ when prompted on screen during the programme’s transmission from 7:50pm onwards.

Commenting on the HD broadcast, Emma Scott, MD of Freesat said;

The UK television premiere of King Kong marks the start of a great season of HD movies on ITV HD. Films such as King Kong truly showcase the potential of high definition, and Freesat is thrilled offer this exclusive broadcast.

King Kong is followed by Shakespeare in Love on Saturday 13th September at 10:15pm.

Don’t forget you can find up to date listings of all programme’s on ITV HD here.

ITV HD schedule static page now available here

It seems that no matter where you look, its impossible to find a schedule of programmes due to be shown on ITV HD. ITV’s own TV guide is useless, not even showing Harley Street as in HD, which is odd considering its their first weekly drama and they made such a big deal of it when it first broadcast.

What we’ve decided to do is post below the HD programmes we know are scheduled to be available (in the coming weeks), and was hoping with the participation of our readers we’d be able to get as complete a list as possible, so if you are aware of any more, please post a comment and we’ll update this post…then we’ll consider building a static page around it.

ITV HD schedule static page now available here