Ofcom has today said that it will not punish ITV for the "human error" that caused an unscheduled ad for Hyndai to stop HD viewers seeing England's first World Cup goal.

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom today returned its report on the blunder after receiving 823 complaints from disgruntled viewers. It described the incident as "an unfortunate error" but said it would not punish ITV.

Ofcom noted that ITV "made no commercial gain" from the unscheduled ad break and had taken steps to prevent it from happening again - carrying out its own review and placing covers over buttons.

ITV had explained to Ofcom that HD viewers missed Gerrard's four minute goal because of a "human error" within the master control room operated by its transmission provider, Technicolor.

It said that a 'take-next trigger' had been activated causing about 1.5m viewers to see 21 seconds of adverts just as they should have been watching Gerrard's shot fizzing into the net.

"Following the incident, ITV explained that whilst it could not identify what led to the human error, it had hired external consultants to critically review its operational procedures with Technicolor and would be introducing extra precautions to prevent further such incidents," Ofcom said.

ITV told the regulator that while it considered the mistake to be both "inopportune and regrettable", it believed the incident to have affected only a minority of its total audience.

ITV estimated that more than 90% of viewers watched the match on its standard definition service, ITV1, and were therefore unaffected.

Ofcom's ruling said: "The inclusion of an unscheduled break at a crucial point of the game was understandably disruptive and we appreciate the frustrations of many viewers who complained to Ofcom.

"Ofcom notes ITV‟s acknowledgement of this error and that during half-time coverage of the match, an apology was broadcast to viewers by presenter, Adrian Chiles.

"Ofcom is also aware that following the match, both ITV and Technicolor apologised for the incident. Ofcom accepts that the incident was an unfortunate error and ITV made no commercial gain from it. We note the operational review ITV is carrying out and the immediate action taken both by ITV and Technicolor, including specific measures to avoid this type of incident recurring."