History
The idea for a Christmas message from the sovereign to the British Empire was proposed by the "founding father" of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Sir John Reith, as a way to inaugurate the Empire Service (now the World Service). That year, George V read the first Royal Christmas Message; the King was originally hesitant about using the relatively untested medium of radio, but was reassured after a summertime visit to the BBC and agreed to carry out the concept and read the speech from a temporary studio set up at Sandringham House. The broadcast was introduced from Ilmington Manor by 65-year-old Walton Handy, a local shepherd, with carols from the church choir and the bells ringing from the town church, and reached an estimated 20 million people in Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, South Africa, and the UK.
While his brother, Edward VIII abdicated just before his first Christmas as king, George VI continued his father's Christmas broadcasts; it was in his reading delivered in the opening stages of the Second World War that he uttered the famous lines: "I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year."
George's daughter, Elizabeth II, gave her first Christmas message to the Commonwealth of Nations from her study at Sandringham House, at 3:07 PM on 25 December 1952, some 11 months after her father's death. By 1957, the broadcast became televised, and, from then until 1996, was produced by the BBC; only in 1969 was no message given because a special documentary film - Royal Family - had been made during the summer in connection with the Investiture of the Prince of Wales. It was therefore decided not to do a broadcast at Christmas, but The Queen issued a written message instead.
The Queen ended this monopoly, however, announcing that the message would, from 1997, be produced and broadcast alternately by the BBC and its main rival, Independent Television News (ITN), with a biennial rotation. It was reported by The Daily Telegraph that this decision was made after the BBC decided to screen an interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, on its current affairs programme Panorama. This was denied by Buckingham Palace which said the new arrangements "reflect the composition of the television and radio industries today". Beginning in 2011, Sky News was added to the rotation.
Read more about this topic: Royal Christmas Message
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