ITV1 HD is a British free-to-air high-definition public broadcast television network operated by ITV plc, the company which is contracted to provide 13 ITV1 services across the UK.

[clarification needed] The channel originally existed on a trial basis from June until November 2006, primarily to show the World Cup games to which ITV had the rights.

The channel was available to subscribers of the Telewest TV Drive cable service and was also broadcast as a low-power digital terrestrial (DVB-T) channel from London's Crystal Palace Transmitter as part of a terrestrial HDTV trial involving 450 homes.

In addition to the World Cup games, ITV HD showed classic films remastered in HD (such as All Quiet on the Western Front and The Big Sleep), documentaries (such as Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Adventures) and dramas such as Poirot.

In the early years, the service will focus on sport and drama content, over time it is expected that the majority of other genres to convert to native HD.

[5] On 26 November 2009, the ITV1 HD logo appeared as a digital on-screen graphic during programming and the off air station identification.

ITV HD's first HD drama broadcast of Harley Street reportedly suffered technical problems including picture and sound quality and failing to revert to the normal ITV broadcast after the programme had finished.

On 12 November 2011, a power failure at the BT Tower resulted in the loss of ITV HD, the channel froze during Harry Hill's TV Burp and continued throughout The X Factor live show.

[15] ITV in standard definition was unable to show live footage and instead aired re-runs of participants' auditions until the problem was fixed 15 minutes later.

[citation needed] On 25 April 2012, a technical fault during extra-time in the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich resulted in the Meridian and London versions of the channel cutting to Mark Austin preparing to read the 10 pm news bulletin.