From Jim Metrock: Channel One is hurting and few are feeling sorry for them. Let’s look at what has happened at this controversial Madison Avenue marketing company.
1. Long-time advertiser and business partner, Reebok, has left Channel One. Reebok and Channel One teamed up for the physical education version of Channel One called PE-TV. There was no advertiser more important to Channel One than Reebok. Obligation hasn’t seen a Reebok ad in well over a year on C1.
2. Mars Inc., the big candy company and huge advertiser on Channel One, pulled the plug on Jim Ritts and Company. (Jim Ritts is Channel One’s CEO.)
3. Channel One heavily advertises its own companies or itself. When advertisers go away, you fill up that space with self-promotional spots.
4. Paul Folkemer suddenly left the company in June. One of his jobs was to convince the public that Channel One had something to do with education. Yeah, right. Now Channel One has to find another educator that will sacrifice their reputation for a big C1 salary. That will be a tough sell.
5. Channel One is relying on the Federal government to keep the company together. As advertisers fall to the wayside, ONDCP and the military become more and more important to Channel One’s survival.
6. Channel One is desperate to prove to advertisers that they have the audience they claim. The various contests they are running for "key operators" shows that Channel One is under extreme pressure from their advertisers.
There are more indicators of Channel One’s decline. When this company gets thrown on the ash dump of history, schoolchildren across the country ought to unite in song. Ten years of this bad idea is long enough.
