Queen Elizabeth II is posting her traditional Christmas message on YouTube for the first time through a special royal channel on the video-sharing website which launches¹ Sunday.
 
Queen Elizabeth II is posting her traditional Christmas message on YouTube for the first time through a special royal channel on the video-sharing website which launches Sunday.

The festive² broadcast will appear at on December 25, but before then, viewers will be able watch past Christmas messages as well as archive and contemporary footage of Britain's royal family.

The royal channel -- www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel -- features a regal homepage illustrated³ with a photograph of Buckingham Palace in London flanked by guards in bearskin hats and red tunics⁴.

"The queen always keeps abreast⁵ with new ways of communicating with people," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "The Christmas message was podcast last year."

The palace said, "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 footage of the queen's 1957 Christmas TV broadcast will remind viewers that TV once was as groundbreaking a creation⁶ as Internet is today.

"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 queen said of television at the time.

The Royal Channel also includes rarely seen footage of the 1923 wedding of the queen's parents, then known as the Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

On Tuesday, Queen Elizabeth II's annual Christmas speech can once again be downloaded as a podcast from http://www.royal.gov.uk. It also is being made available on television in high definition⁷ for the first time.

英国女王伊丽莎白二世的圣诞致辞将首次登上Youtube视频分享网站。

据悉，Youtube网站已于上周日开通“英国王室频道”，女王的圣诞致辞将于12月25日播出。目前，用户可在该频道浏览女王历年的圣诞讲话视频以及英国王室近期和历史上的一些视频录像资料。

英国王室频道有一个专门的“皇家主页”，页面（标题）以地处伦敦的白金汉宫为背景，两侧各有一列头戴熊皮帽子、身穿红色上衣的卫兵。

白金汉宫在一份声明中说：“女王一直紧跟潮流，不断采用新的方式与人们交流。去年女王的圣诞致辞就登上了‘播客’。”

白金汉宫说：“女王一直希望与更多的人交流，并不断尝试符合时代潮流的交流方式。这将使更多的年轻人及其它国家的人听到并看到女王的圣诞致辞。”

1957年女王圣诞电视讲话的录像会让人们想起曾经的电视时代，当时的电视与今天的互联网一样，具有划时代意义。

女王在那一年的圣诞致辞中说：“我非常希望这个新媒介能使我的讲话更亲切、更直接。今天大家能在电视上看到我，再一次说明了世界的发展有多么迅速。”

“英国王室频道”还包括1923年女王父母约克公爵和伊丽莎白•鲍伊斯-莱恩夫人鲜为人见的婚礼录像。

本周二，英国王室官方网站（http://www.royal.gov.uk）将再次提供女王的圣诞致辞“播客”下载。此外，今年女王的圣诞讲话还将首次通过高清电视直播。

Vocabulary:

keep abreast with:紧跟……；与……并进