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.
Gatorade remains an advertiser on Channel One News. The picture above comes from the Friday, January 19 show. C1’s management continues to see no problem advertising this junk drink to preteens. Obligation’s Jim Metrock said, "It seems fitting that one of the last regular advertisers on Channel One News is a product that adds...
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Channel One News ran two stories this week on the hanging of Saddam Hussein. Channel One’s Judy Harris had to make some decisions about what would be shown. She knew that children as young as ten are in Channel One’s dwindling captive audience. Not surprisingly Ms. Harris blunders. For some reason she wants children...
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Primedia Discontinues Operations on Education Unit Continues to ‘Explore All Options’ for Channel One By Claire Atkinson Published: December 20, 2006 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Primedia is discontinuing the education segment that houses Channel One, according to a statement issued today. A spokeswoman for the company insisted this doesn’t mean the business is closing....
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Press Release Source: PRIMEDIA Inc. PRIMEDIA’s Education Segment to be Classified as a Discontinued Operation Wednesday December 20, 11:00 am ET NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PRIMEDIA Inc. (NYSE: PRM – News) today announced that in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the extent of the Company’s progress in exploring strategic options for the assets in...
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Obligation believes that today’s Channel One News program will be their last one – ever. Today’s show (December 19) is the last one before their normal holiday break, but with all the losses and lack of support for the company from their parent company Primedia, it makes sense for them to never come back...
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Channel One: Going, Going, Gone? Primedia Weighing Options for Its In-School TV Network By Claire Atkinson December 14, 2006 NEW YORK (AdAge.com ) — The future of Channel One, the in-school TV network that launched the careers of CNN’s Anderson Cooper and "National Geographic’s Ultimate Explorer" host Lisa Ling, is hanging in the balance....
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Wednesday, December 13, 2006 Commercial activity permitted in schools, such as soft drink ads; the use of Channel One broadcasts in classrooms; sales incentives from soft drink bottlers; and exclusive beverage contracts may discourage a "nutrition-friendly" environment for students, say researchers. Dr. Claudia Probart, Penn State associate professor of nutritional sciences who led the...
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From Jim Metrock: It was a good idea if it had worked: Cut programming expenses at Channel One and air student-produced news stories that would cost Channel One nothing. Since this spring Channel One has been using their in-school show and web site to constantly solicit schools to sign up as "Bureau Schools." Channel...
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Dean Nelson is the Chairman and CEO of Channel One’s parent company PRIMEDIA. Today he discussed Channel One at the Credit Suisse’s Media Week conference in New York City. If you were one of the remaining employees of Channel One and you listened to what Mr. Nelson had to say, you would be at...
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December 4, 2006 Pediatricians call for less advertising to children By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY Pediatricians should lobby for a ban or severe curtailment on widespread school-based ads, and Congress should prohibit commercials for "junk food" on TV shows watched mostly by young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics says Monday. The new policy...
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