Channel One claims to have a captive audience of 8 million students. Advertisers like the fact that young people are compelled to watch their ads so the advertisers pay over $200,000 for ONE 30-second ad. But sometimes a company wants to do more than just run a regular commercial on Channel One News.
If you have more money, a company can buy an “Anchor” position for a music artist, TV or movie actor. Channel One’s producer, Jim Morris, has allowed this selling of anchor positions to go on for several years now.
On December 10, Maverick Records, the label Madonna owns, made arrangements to have one of their recording artists, Alanis Morisette, to be a Channel One News anchor.
Obligation has no idea of how much money passed hands, but the value of buying an anchor or guest host position should be considerably more than one or two commercial spots.
Watch for yourself.
Here is the introduction of Ms. Morisette and the ending of the show. Notice that Derrick Shore, a regular anchor, is “sooooo excited” to have Ms. Morisette as co-anchor. He tells the students that Channel One News will be playing songs from the artist all through the Channel One News TV show. No school in America ever signed up for this to happen.
At the end, Shore sets up Ms. Morisette with a “What have you been up to?” opening. She plugs her tour and her new CD and DVD like she is suppose to do. Shore then urges students to go to Channelone.com to read more ad copy about this artist and her new CD, which comes out this very day (surprise!). Shore holds up one of her new CDs and tells 8 million students the name of the CD – “Feast on Scraps.”
Students are told they can win an autographed copy of “Feast on Scraps.” A new songfrom Alanis ends the Channel One News show. (Several Morissette songs are played this day and she gets much more screen-time than what we show on this video clip.) This is pure gold for a recording company.
Keep in mind that the entire time you are watching this video clip you are watching what Channel One News considers to be “non-commercial” content. None of this time is part of Channel One’s famous “two-minutes of commercials.” When a Channel One sales rep comes to a school board and says, “We only have two minutes of commercials per show” he or she is not counting this type of bonus commercial time.
Jim Metrock said, “When Channel One News says they have no more than two minutes of commercials, that is an outright lie. This is a company that has run amok. They are swamping their show with advertising. In the journalism world, Channel One has always been a joke. Now with increased pressures to maximize revenues in anticipation of selling the company, Channel One is doing some really dumb things that will make the decision to remove it from classes a lot easier for on-the-fence school administrators.”
Metrock continued, “Channel One News is creating a very radical culture for young people. This at least the third artist from Madonna’s record company that has been pushed on students without the knowledge of parents. Morisette is a has-been that gained notoriety in the 90’s with a song that had lyrics about her performing oral sex in a movie theater. Channel One executives don’t care who or what they promote to other people’s children. It is all about money. It certainly isn’t about news.”
