Welcome to Rhondda TV

Today we are launching an online television service – Rhondda TV.

The service will feature short video clips about the Rhondda, with four channels – News, Community, History and a Welsh Language channel.

The first videos feature an introduction to the Assembly’s investment in the Rhondda on the News channel, a programme about Elizabeth Andrews, the Rhondda-based Welsh Labour Women’s Organiser who led the campaign for pithead baths and nursery schools on the Rhondda History Channel, and a short feature on Labour activity at the Eisteddfod in the summer on the Welsh Language service.

I also want to hear from local community organisations with video they would like to place on the web. The first feature on the Rhondda Community Channel is about the recent visit by the Clydach Vale-based Cambrian Village Trust to the National Assembly.

We will add more video clips each week. I am keen to keep pioneering the latest technology to find new ways of communicating with voters.

The idea behind Rhondda TV is two-fold. It’s a way of keeping people informed of what I am doing as their Assembly Member. It’s also a way of promoting the Rhondda to the world on the internet.

As more people get broadband they get more accustomed to watching video over the Internet.

We’ve been building up a library of video footage since June in order to launch the service.

But it’s more than a video-news service - it’s a community video channel for the Rhondda as well. You can access Rhondda TV at www.rhondda.tv