This coming school year could be even more outrageous than last year. The
movie assault on children will most definitely continue. The melting of editorial
content with advertising will escalate as Channel One fights to stay alive..
In July, Primedia’s CEO Tom Rogers bragged on a conference call with investment
reporters and analysts that Channel One had increased their movie studio advertising "five-fold". Mr.
Rogers failed to tell them that this type of advertising is speeding the death
of Channel One. The fact that Rogers only mentioned movie studio advertising
is a sign that Channel One is in serious revenue trouble. He said that revenue
for Channel One in their second quarter was "flat." This is good
news and bad.
The "bad news" is as Channel One gets more desperate for
advertising dollars they will become even more irresponsible.
Channel One will continue to have guest hosts that push their latest CDs and
movies during the show. Obligation has a copy of Channel One’s "news
standards" that say they will never allow a guest host to promote their
latest works, but Channel One has given up the pretense that they are
a news gathering organization. They have always been and remain a cheaply produced
advertising gimmick that exploits schoolchildren.
