From Jim Metrock: It’s not working out.
Channel One News limps into this new school year with an audience problem and a packaging problem.
The “good old days” of over 8 million students in its captive audience are gone. Students at schools that still technically show the program, don’t see the program. Since Channel One turned over title to all its equipment to schools (to save the company from paying huge disposal fees), there is no incentive for schools to make their students sit and watch an hour of highly commercial television content.
Channel One keeps repackaging itself in hopes of sparking some renewed interest with teachers. The company spent years and a lot of money trying to sell “Channel One News INTERACTIV” ooh, sounded very… interactive. Dropping the “e” meant to convey their old, tired videos as something modern, cutting edge.
Nah, that didn’t work. You see no mention anymore of the disastrous “Channel One News Interactiv” and its elementary school version “Channel One News Interactiv Jr.”
Nowadays, Channel One’s desperate managers are pushing Channel One News Premium. “Premium” is good, right. What does an educator get if they actually PAY for Channel One News?
Nobody is supposed to pay for Channel One News! That was the whole point of the company. The advertisers pay for it all. Does Channel One News still have advertisers? Yes. Are the advertisers paying Channel One for their ads? Yes. So why charge teachers and schools anything for the program?
The answer to that question goes back to the first problem: the smaller audience. Advertisers pay, but not as much as before, because there are fewer viewers than before. Therefore they are scrambling to actually convince teachers, schools, even home school parents, heck, anybody, to buy a subscription to Channel One News Premium.
Channel One has been pushing the subscription idea for the last three years. At first, the thought was that schools would pay to NOT have the commercials in the program. Eliminating the commercials would remove one of the biggest reasons why educators detest Channel One.
That plan didn’t work out. Right now, Channel One News plays each day’s show without the ads on its web site. Schools can simply show the web version on a screen for their class and be spared Channel One’s offensive commercials. How do I know they are offensive? I have repeatedly asked Channel One to publish the list of their advertisers and they always refuse.
Channel One keeps sprucing up its Premium product. See the latest Quick Start Guide. It’s Channel One itself that needs a quick start. They need a sales defibrillator. Something to jump start their sales and reverse the decline. Maybe this new version of Premium will connect with teachers in a way it never has before. May be.
