OXFORDSHIRE community TV channel That's Oxford, which launched last year, has been criticised by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom after experiencing technical difficulties.

Under the Communication Act 2003, Ofcom has a duty to set standards for broadcast content, and the Broadcast and on Demand Bulletin reports regularly on outcomes of investigations into alleged breaches of Ofcom codes and licence conditions.

Abingdon-based station That's Oxford is part of the That's Media group and is available in the Oxfordshire area as a digital TV channel.

During June and July last year Ofcom received a number of complaints regarding the technical quality of material broadcast by That's Oxford, That's Solent and That's Manchester.

According to the Bulletin there were sound problems, video problems with images freezing and jumping, and caption and graphic problems, including end credits appearing during the programme and captions being inconsistent with the image on the screen.

That's Media responded to Ofcom to say that despite undertaking research before it launched, both That's Oxford and That's Solent in Hampshire had "suffered serious technical problems and had been working over a period of time to resolve these".

This included work to upgrade systems.

Ofcom concluded that technical issues needed to be kept to a minimum, even though local digital TV was a new service, and added that measures needed to be taken by That's Media to ensure there was no recurrence of the problems.

That's Oxford spokesman Daniel Cass was unavailable for comment.