It is getting harder and harder to describe Channel One’s shrinking audience. Channel One has always said they had so many millions of students in their audience. When Obligation began reporting on Channel One in 1996, the company claimed to have 8.2 million students. That number steadily went down to "nearly 6 million" in 2007. Now they say they have "nearly 25% of American teens." This figure means nothing and that is why Channel One is now using it.
First, almost half of Channel One’s audience are pre-teens, so saying they have a certain percentage of teens is confusing. "Nearly 25%" means "under 25%." No longer are they claiming "nearly 6 million" students. Obligation believes the company may have lost half of their audience from 2005. There is no way to confirm any figure. Obviously, Alloy the new owner of Channel One has not stopped the hemorrhaging at C1N.
At some point, maybe 2 million, the audience will be of no significance to advertisers and the company will finally give up its long struggle to survive.
From 2005 to 2007, Channel One lost a jaw-dropping 2,500 schools or 22% of their remaining schools. They claimed 11,000 schools in 2005; 8,500 in 2007. At its peak, Channel One claimed 12,000 schools. The best Channel One can do now is claim to have "thousands" of schools.
Channel One News last stated they had "over 300,000" educators showing their program. Now they have "hundreds of thousands." We’re guessing that means over 200,000.
As we are about to start the 2009-10 school year, it is more apparent than ever that Channel One News is a dying company.
| Date | Audience | Schools | Educators | Documentation |
| 1998 | "more than 12,000 |  |
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| 1999 | "more than 8 million" | "more than 12,000" | "440,000" |  |
| 1999 | "8.1 million teenagers" |  |
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| 2000 | "over 8 million" | "12,000" | "400,000" |  |
| 2002 | "nearly 8 million teens" | "over 350,000" |  |
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| 2003 | "nearly 8 million" | "nearly 12,000" |  |
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| July 2005 | "over 7.7 million" | "over 350,000" |  |
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| December 20, 2005 | "more than 7 million" | "11,000" | "over 300,000" |  |
| October 9, 2007 | "over 6 million" |  |
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| December 5, 2007 | "nearly 6 million" | "8,500" | "more than 300,000" |  |
| July 16, 2009 | "nearly 25% of American teens" | "thousands" | "hundreds of thousands" | |
Channel One usually alters its content after we report on it, but the source for the July 16, 2009 content above is http://www.channelone.com/about/faq/
