Queen Elizabeth gets her own YouTube channel

Seventy-five years ago, courtesy of what he referred to as “the marvels of modern science,” King George V became the first British monarch to broadcast a message to his subjects at Christmas time via the radio.

“I take it as a good omen that the wireless should have reached its present perfection at a time when the empire has been linked in closer union,” George said in his address, which became an annual ritual here.

The British empire has long since gone, and the term “wireless” no longer refers to radio. But the royal family is still gamely embracing brave new gadgetry. This week, Queen Elizabeth announced that she had not only started a new channel on YouTube — the Royal Channel — but also planned to use it to broadcast her own Christmas address, at 3 p.m. (10 a.m. Eastern time) on Tuesday.

“If you look through the years, the queen’s always kept up to date with changes in technology,” a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said. In fact, the monarchy has had its own Web site for the past decade, and the queen made her Christmas message available as a podcast for the first time two years ago.

(Via NYT)