King’s Christmas speech was broadcast online nine hours before it was broadcast in the UK

The King’s Christmas Day broadcast was shared online nine hours ahead of its national broadcast.

The first address of the new monarch was published around 6am GMT yesterday on a YouTube account called The Royal Grift.

The pre-recorded message is allowed to be shown in Commonwealth countries like Tuvalu, New Zealand and Australia, where the King is the head of state, at 3pm local time – around 12 to 13 hours ahead of UK GMT time. However, this is only on the condition that it is not recorded or uploaded to a streaming platform.

Last night it was unclear which country the unauthorized video came from. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said of the leak: “It has happened on occasion.” It was not clear if the Palace would take action against YouTube.

The King’s Christmas Day broadcast was shared online nine hours ahead of its national broadcast

In 1992, during the late Queen’s “annus horribilis”, an investigation was launched after the address was published in The Sun just two days before Christmas.

The Queen sued for copyright infringement and later accepted an apology and a £200,000 donation to charity.

The King’s great-grandfather, King George V, provided the first royal Christmas broadcast live on radio from Sandringham in 1932.

The fixed time of 3:00 p.m. each year was chosen in 1932 because it was considered the best for reaching most of the countries of the British Empire on shortwave

The General Post Office was used to reach Australia, Canada, India, Kenya and South Africa.