An ITV spokeswoman said:

“A transmission problem temporarily affected ITV1′s HD service during the England/USA match.

“ITV standard definition service continued uninterrupted. We apologise for the interruption in transmission.”

Last year, ITV received more than 1,000 complaints after viewers missed the winning goal in an FA Cup tie between Liverpool and Everton, when the broadcaster cut to an advertising break. Ryan Gosling scored Everton’s winning goal in the 118th minute, after the game had gone into extra time.

ITV boss at the time Michael Grade described it as “inexcusable” and would not happen again.

This must be a major embarrassment for ITV as they have been advertising that this is the first World Cup to be broadcast in High Definition and after the error they seemed to broadcast on ITV1 HD an upscaled version of the Standard Definition feed the same as ITV1.

Watch the howler here:

HD programmes have already begun to be broadcast on Freeview in parts of the country and HD Freeview boxes will be available in the shops shortly.

Ofcom’s consultation asks whether the BBC, through its subsidiary Freeview, should be granted a change to its multiplex licence

According to Ofcom, the BBC’s proposals would allow it to require the use of content management technology in HD receivers to control the way films and TV shows are copied on to Blu-ray and DVDs and shared with others over the internet.

Under the BBC proposals, viewers would still be able to record the BBC’s and other free to air broadcasters HD content on to their digital video recorders.

The BBC argues that this would ensure that rights holders, such as film and TV production companies, provide the widest possible range of HD content on the digital terrestrial TV platform.

The consultation closes on 2 April 2010.

The full proposal can be seen on the Ofcom Website

On launch BBC HD and ITV HD were available, Channel 4 HD is expected to follow in time for the main commercial launch in March/Spring 2010. Five HD is expected to launch late in 2010. ITV HD is currently broadcasting an up-scaled version of ITV1. It remains to be seen if ITV1 HD will continue or whether  ITV will use ITV HD as a dedicated channel like the BBC do with BBC HD.

Currently no Freeview HD set top boxes are available to the public but testing  and production are well under way for the full public launch in March/Spring 2010.

The BBC showcased live HD transmissions on digital terrestrial television at the BBC Media Centre.

BBC head of broadcast infrastructure James Jackson said that today’s launch has brought Freeview HD to 23% of the UK, which will grow to 40% next year when a series of advanced networks in key metropolitan areas come online.