Queen becomes instant internet sensation after launching royal channel on You Tube
The Queen's YouTube channel has become a surprise internet hit, with almost 400,000 people watching it in its first two days.
The video on the website includes a series of archive and recent footage about the royal family.
The Queen's traditional Christmas Day broadcast is to be uploaded to it at 3pm tomorrow so that it can be watched around the globe although 380,000 people have already viewed clips on the site, with the most popular being the Queen's first Christmas Day broadcast in 1957, when she spoke live from Sandringham.
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The Royal Channel on YouTube will host video clips and messages from the Royal household - including the Christmas speech
The royal page, which bears the heading in scarlet letters The Royal Channel - The Official Channel of the British Monarchy, is illustrated with a photograph of Buckingham Palace with the Queen's Guards in their bearskins and red tunics.
Modern video clips include shots of garden parties, state visits, the Queen and prime ministers, investitures and a day in the life of the Prince of Wales.
There are also excerpts from Lord Wakehurst's film Long to Reign Over Us which has never been publicly released.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "The Queen always keeps abreast with new ways of communicating with people."
The Christmas message was podcast last year. The Royal Channel features the 1957 broadcast in which she talks about using a new medium of communication.
The Queen, in an apricot dress, watches the landmark 1957 message on a modern flat-screen TV.
The Queen's speech last year. This time around her message will be broadcast for the first time on YouTube
This year the Queen will say she believes everyone has a responsibility to care for the vulnerable and those excluded from society.
She will also pay tribute to the sacrifices made by the armed forces.
The archive footage goes back to 1917, with silent film of Queen Alexandra, the widow of King Edward VII, touring flower sellers in Haymarket.
There is also rare newsreel footage of the Queen Mother marrying Prince Albert, second in line to the throne, in 1923, when she was Elizabeth Bowes Lyon. He later became King George VI.
This year's speech is being made available in High Definition for the first time and can also be downloaded as a podcast from www.royal.gov.uk
