LONDON, Dec. 24, 2007
Latest YouTube Star: Queen Elizabeth!
Hopes To Reach Younger, Wider Audience, Starting With Annual Christmas Message
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Britain's Queen Elizabeth has given an annual televised Christmas message every year since 1957. (AP Photo/Shaun Curry/Pool)
The 81-year-old British monarch launched her own video site on YouTube Sunday, featuring old news reels and film snippets of daily royal life.
Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II keeps up with new ways of communicating with people and was hoping to reach a wider, and younger, audience through the popular video-sharing Web site.
The palace began posting archive and recent footage of the queen and other royals on the official Royal Channel on YouTube on Sunday, with plans to add new clips regularly.
The queen will use the site to send out her annual televised Christmas message, a tradition she began 50 years ago.
It's a fixture of a British Christmas, explains CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar: At 3 p.m. on the day, her majesty's loyal subjects abandon their turkeys and trees, and around the country, television sets are tuned to the British Broadcasting Corporation, to listen to the Queen's message. This year, though, there's the YouTube twist.
"The monarchy has been evolving for a thousand years," former royal spokesman Dickie Arbiter told MacVicar, "and the Queen personally doesn't change, but what she does do is adapt, and she's adapting to the 21st century with creating a Royal Channel on YouTube."
"The queen always keeps abreast with new ways of communicating with people," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "She has always been aware of reaching more people and adapting the communication to suit. This will make the Christmas message more accessible to younger people and those in other countries."
The royal page - which bears the scarlet lettered heading "The Royal Channel - The Official Channel of the British Monarchy" - features a picture of Buckingham Palace flanked by the queen's Guards in their trademark tall bearskin hats and red tunics.
Palace officials said the queen's Christmas message this year will urge people to care for the vulnerable and those excluded from society. She will also pay tribute to the sacrifices made by the armed forces.
The queen chooses a different theme for each annual address, the one occasion in the year when she writes her own speech without government advice.
In a preview of this year's speech, the monarch is seen standing in Buckingham Palace, watching black and white footage of herself delivering her first televised broadcast.
Dressed in an apricot colored dress, the queen can be seen walking into the palace's opulent 1844 Room, which is filled with lights and production equipment, and preparing to start her address.
The speech remains confidential until it is aired, both on TV and radio, on Christmas Day.
YouTube, which enables anyone to upload and share video clips, was founded in 2005 and bought by Google last year.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- Not one drop of Brit in me. I''m from Germany, and Norway. However, I admire the Queen. She is very dedicated to her job and her country. I think since the first tape put up is 1957, and this is 2007, the royals should put up one of her Christmas speeches for every 10 years (ie: 1967, ''77, ''87...). It would be interesting to see how she aged and what was going on in the country at the time. Hope someone will take heed of this request...
Pat - Reply to this comment
- Also Bravo chrisross200 and aardbear
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- samrensho, ScarletPhD - I assume you have paid up your subscripitions to Socialist Weekly and Union Truth. Your comments show you have a lot in common with the far left wing in England. FYI is a total monetary sense, the Royal Family brings in billions of pounds in tourist pounds yearly. They work tirelessly to save what little green space is left in England. They are responsible for keeping much of our History in the country and now they even pay taxes! So please keep your narrow-minded trash-talk to the ghettos you live in. BTW - Bravo MichelleM99!!!
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- Pla ar do theach!
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- The Queen is a symbol of our countries stability. She has been queen for over half a century, has seen over a dozen Prime Ministers come and go, seen the devastation of the Blitz and the changing influences in our society. She was also the one who decided to play the American National Anthem instead of the British one at the Changing of the Guard after September 11th. Perhaps bearing all that in mind people might show her a little more respect in this forum.
Merry Christmas. - Reply to this comment
- If the Brits like ''em, fine. Personally I think they''re all a pampered, spoiled waste of space.
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- Those inbred royals are completely detached from reality. Waste of oxygen.
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- We have a queen -- Rudy Giulani,,, he''s a drag queen & he has the HM''s hat & dress in his closet
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- I love HM the Queen. I am an American .
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- YOU GUYZ LEAVE THE QUEEN ALONE! YOU STUPID MEN! SHE JUST TRIES AND TRIES AND TRIES! AND ALL YOU DO IS PICK ON HER!
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President Obama's 
