Does your school still have Channel One News?
Learn how to unplug

Houghton Mifflin/Channel One News

Channel One News is a youth marketing company whose main purpose is to get advertising to a captive audience of impressionable schoolchildren. The company loans a school TV equipment in exchange for the school’s contractual pledge to show students a daily, 12-minute, hyper-commercial, TV program called Channel One News. Students lose one hour a week of schools time, which equates to one lost week of instructional time (32 hours) per year. No educational organization endorses the use of Channel One News.

Channel One has fallen on very hard times. Once they claimed over 8 million students were under contract. Since 1997 they have continued to lose schools and now they claim “nearly five million” students and the true figure is probably lower.

In May 2014, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquired Channel One from ZelnickMedia the makers of the ultra-violent Grand Thief Auto video game series. Houghton Mifflin did not disclose the purchase price.

At the end of 2014 most of Channel One’s full-paying advertisers have abandoned the program.

La Pine Middle School

December 26, 2008

  More and more schools are talking openly about how they have turned off Channel One News. This recent article from Oregon shows the main reason that Channel One can never return to its profitable glory years of 1994-1997. Schools have just “switched off.” Yes, they are using the Channel One equipment, but they...
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Allcampus.com

December 8, 2008
Allcampus.com

Allcampus.com’s commercial shows impressive college buildings. Allcampus.com wants to create the impression they are connected with major universities. What Allcampus.com wants is personal information about students watching their commercial. They will sell this information to various vocational schools and non-mainstream colleges. Channel One’s parent company Alloy Media and Marketing is using Channel One News...
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Gay Marriage Story For Middle School Students

November 17, 2008
Gay Marriage Story For Middle School Students

From Jim Metrock: Thank goodness few schoolchildren are watching Channel One News. Almost the first half of the Friday, November 14 show was devoted to gay marriage. Children as young as ten were presented with an "in-your-face" discussion of whether it is right or wrong to allow a man to marry another man and...
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Website Gives Clues

November 15, 2008
Website Gives Clues

From Jim Metrock: There are more and more signs that Channel One News is slowly giving up its long struggle to exist. Today I clicked on "Anchor/Reporter Bios" and got what you see above. Nice looking people, but two of these three have been gone for months. Only Jessica Kumari remains from this trio....
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EF Tours Uses Sex To Sell To Kids

November 3, 2008
EF Tours Uses Sex To Sell To Kids

EF Educational Tours is STILL taking up school time with their commercials. The only thing that is new is the rather adult flavor they have added to their classroom ads. This ad ran on November 3 and several other dates in American classrooms. Kids and teachers have to be shocked to see this image...
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Buying Channel One Comes Back To Haunt Alloy

October 31, 2008
Buying Channel One Comes Back To Haunt Alloy

  From Jim Metrock: I am pretty awful at picking stocks. If you think you are in bad shape with your investments, you should see my brokerage statements. Actually, even I am not looking at my own brokerage (now I know why “broke” is in the word) statements because I don’t have the nerve....
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OneVote Exposes Channel One’s Irrelevance

October 29, 2008
OneVote Exposes Channel One’s Irrelevance

  Press Release Source: Channel One News Channel One News Announces "OneVote 2008" Results – Teens Declare Senator Barack Obama the President-Elect in Nationwide Online Election Wednesday October 29, 11:12 am ET — Obama nearly sweeps key "Battleground" states according to poll — Channel One Network’s youth citizen journalism platform, YouTellIt.com, inspired teens to...
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NBC Cutting Expenses

October 23, 2008
NBC Cutting Expenses

NBC Universal to cut 3 percent of 2009 budget: report Sun Oct 19, 2008 (Reuters) – NBC Universal, the broadcasting unit of General Electric Co, plans to cut $500 million from next year’s budget, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. NBC Universal said the cuts will amount to 3...
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Forbes Article

October 22, 2008
Forbes Article

Entrepreneurs Teen Machine Helen Coster 10.22.08, 6:00 PM ET Forbes Magazine   Matthew Diamond Alloy comes up with some of the hottest books and flicks for teens. So why isn’t it, like, profitable? In the world of Alloy Entertainment’s books and television shows, the girls are naughty. In The A-List book series Camilla Sheppard...
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Sinking The Bismarck For 15 Years

October 14, 2008

This is an article based on a TV report from Bismarck, ND. Incredibly, the school administrators in Bismarck are realizing that one hour a week of TV may not be the best use of school time. Here is a great example of how a school district is fleeced by Channel One News. The school...
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