Among the titles that are set to go up for sale are Brideshead Revisited, Cold Feet and puppet show Captain Scarlet. Inspector Morse and The Saint are due later this year.

According to the BBC fans can purchase entire series, with shows priced from $3.95 per episode.  ITV executive Dawn Airey said the broadcaster wanted to "give viewers the opportunity to watch their favourite shows wherever they are."

"ITV has thousands of hours of classic content in the archive which we are bringing to a whole new audience," she said.

There are plans to make more recent programmes available, including the second series of Inspector Morse spin-off Lewis.

However, they will not be put on iTunes until 30 days after they are broadcast.

The deal follows the BBC's announcement in February that it was making its programmes available on iTunes.

ITV is also working with the BBC and Channel 4 on an on-demand service called Kangaroo, which plans to offer more than 10,000 hours of programmes. It is due to launch later this year.