December 2007 was a landmark month for the Queen. Exactly fifty years after her first-ever televised Christmas broadcast in 1957, The Queen appeared on YouTube to host her first IPTV-based seasonal greeting. This video is a segment in the launch of “The Royal Channel”, the Monarchy’s YouTube video portal which is being used to connect to a “younger people and those in other countries ”.

Other world leaders have similarly found a place on YouTube: this year marked the first time the Japanese PM used the site to address his nation for a New Year’s greeting as well as Australia’s outgoing PM addressing voters through YouTube .

It’s great that we are starting to see IPTV mature into a more functional utility of communication than just a portal of viral entertainment. As the year progresses and the general public accepts the growing popularity of professionally-generated content emerging online, we’re going to see more and more government officials taking their messages to the web.

IPTV is on its way to reaching its full potential, though The Queen’s Christmas broadcast and the Japanese PM’s New Year’s Greeting combined have less than half the views of the backwards singing guy …