Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launched a channel on the popular video-sharing website

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II visits Kitante Primary School in Kampala on the last day of her state visit to Uganda November 24, 2007. Buckingham Palace on Sunday said the 81-year-old monarch will post her traditional Christmas Day message -- normally broadcast on television -- on the video-sharing Web site as well this year.

Britain's Queen gets technology savvy

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launched a channel on the popular video-sharing website YouTube Sunday, British press reports said, citing Buckingham Palace.

Known as The Royal Channel, the online video service plans to feature the queen's 50th traditional Christmas Day message for the first time this year, Sunday's Observer weekly reported.


The queen, who did not use a personal computer until two years ago, was told of the YouTube phenomenon by her grandchildren, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, the Observer reported.

The channel was due to be launched on Sunday with footage of the queen's parents' wedding in 1923 and of Queen Alexandra visiting rose sellers in London in 1917.

Other footage to be included at the launch shows reaction to George VI's death, the queen's accession to the throne and her coronation, the report said.

The palace plans to add more footage and also to translate it into various languages, the reports said.

The channel can be viewed at www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth goes global on YouTube


Queen Elizabeth is joining the YouTube generation.
Buckingham Palace on Sunday said the 81-year-old monarch will post her traditional Christmas Day message -- normally broadcast on television -- on the video-sharing Web site as well this year.

At the same time, a new Royal Channel has been unveiled on YouTube, allowing Web surfers to view the queen's first Christmas broadcast in 1957, as well as other archive footage of the royal family and its events.
The catalogue is at www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel.

The queen is said to be avid about using new technology to reach a wider, more diverse audience. Last year her Christmas message was released as a podcast.

In her first Christmas broadcast 50 years ago, she waxed lyrical about the advent of television.

"I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct," she said. "That it is possible for you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us."

Queen Elizabeth's message is followed closely by millions of Britons and others in Commonwealth countries worldwide on Christmas Day each year.

Buckingham Palace revealed this week the queen likes to sneak off from the rest of her family on Christmas Day and watch the recorded message alone, judging for herself how she comes across.