Channel One News – A No-Show

August 15, 2007

Channel One has cancelled the first three weeks of its broadcast year.

Monday, August 13, should have been the first day of Channel One News. The second Monday in August has been the Channel One start date for as long as Obligation has been following the company (1996).

A short sentence was added to Channelone.com this week saying the first day of the show has been moved to September 4.

Obligation’s Jim Metrock said, "Evidently the marriage of NBC, Alloy and Channel One hasn’t gone smoothly. Being ‘dark’ for almost the first month of school will help assure even more schools will never turn on the show. Schools will get into a routine that doesn’t include Channel One’s wasted 12 minutes. This delay may also mean there are few advertisers signing up for the show. After all, what advertiser would want to have their product showcased on this burned out, failed TV show? Channel One’s web site has been dead for nearly two months now. Possibly Alloy has fired the web team because there has been no new content since June. Young people visiting the site who want to get updated on the news have been seeing the same June 20th episode of the much ballyhooed Channel One News ‘Summer Show’ play over and over every day. Channel One is telling kids that the Atlantis space shuttle is up in space – and it was in June – when in fact it’s the Endeavour space shuttle up in space now. The wheels have come off at Channel One. There may be a light on, but nobody’s home. Channel One’s other web site Channelonenetwork.com has been dead since May. Nothing has been updated since then. Click on ‘Announcements’ and you see nothing. Click on ‘About Us’ and you read an old statement by CEO Judy Harris that doesn’t mention Alloy as the new owner. Alloy bought the company in April 2007. Everything about Channel One News is cold and dead and that should make parents, students, and teachers feel mighty good as school begins."