HOUSEHOLDS across Oxfordshire will face disruption to their television signals until the end of September, it was revealed last night.

A fire on Thursday, May 13, left the county’s main antenna in Beckley damaged beyond repair and some viewers have been without BBC and ITV channels since then.

Last night, Arqiva, the company carrying out the country’s digital switchover, said a replacement antenna had been ordered but added a “full restoration” of service would not happen for another four months.

Company programme director Peter Heslop said: “We understand how frustrating this must be for viewers. Arqiva manages over 1,000 TV and radio transmission sites and incidents like this are extremely rare. Since the fire we have worked very hard to restore full services as quickly as possible.”

Up to 410,000 people were left without signal for about eight hours after the blaze, although Sky and cable viewers were unaffected.

TV services in the area will continue to be transmitted from a reserve antenna.