British Royal Household launches YouTube channel

The Royal Household has launched a Royal Channel on the popular video sharing website "YouTube". The channel went live on Sunday, the 23rd December showcasing both archive and modern video of The Queen and other Members of the Royal Family and Royal events. New footage will be regularly added.

At launch, the channel will display the first televised Christmas Broadcast of 1957 as its main video. The access to this restricted footage has been granted to mark the 50th anniversary this year of the first televised Christmas Broadcast. It also makes reference to technological advances: "I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct. 'That it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us."

The Royal Channel on YouTube will also show The Queen's 2007 Christmas Broadcast for the first time from approximately 3pm GMT on the 25th December -- Christmas Day; the same time as the traditional broadcast on television. The release in English will be on the Royal website at http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page6163.asp.

This is not the first time the British Monarchy have embraced technology. In 1937 the Coronation procession of George VI was the first televised outside broadcast. In 1953 The Queen allows television cameras inside Westminster Abbey for the
first time during a State occasion for her Coronation. An extra half a million TV sets are sold in the weeks running up to the event. And in 1976 The Queen became the first Monarch to send an email during a visit to an army base.