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.
This picture is from the latest Channel One News ad campaign to get children to consume more Hubba Bubble bubble gum. Obligation has tried to convince Channel One’s executives that schoolchildren do not need more sugar in their lives. We obviously have failed. Hubba Bubba is an old brand that is trying to get...
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Screen shot of actual classroom ad on Channel One News. Subway is back on Channel One News and they are doing the same thing they did all last school year: advertising their highest-calorie, highest-fat-content sandwiches. Students aren’t told what sandwiches are being displayed in this new ad, but these are not Subway’s famous...
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News Release For Immediate Release: For More Information Contact: Thursday, September 14, 2006 Gary Ruskin (503) 235-8012 Sarah Roberts (202) 255-8332 Children’s Advocates Ask Companies Not to Advertise on BusRadio and Channel One Children’s advocates sent letters today to...
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"we can get some friends do it like the ying yang twins wait til’ you see my… wait til’ you see my…" Today, September 14, 2006 is Chris Brown Day on Channel One News. Chris Brown? Who is he? Well, if you were forced to watch Channel One News, you would know....
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There are two parts to Channel One News. One is the in-school TV show that has caused controversy for the last 16 years. The other part is Channelone.com which has been equally controversial since it was launched in 1996. Schools that signed up for Channel One News – the TV show, never agreed to...
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When a Channel One News show comes on a classroom TV set, students and teachers should be asking a few questions. Media literacy is about better understanding the media messages that come at us so fast that they usually escape critical thinking. It is ironic that the one TV show that needs to be...
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Oops, they did it again. It is difficult to get any true figures on how many schools still have Channel One. We know that their revenue has been cut in half over the years, so that would indicate that advertisers believe their audience is much less than before. Still, the public has to rely...
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On August 17, Channel One added this language to their channelone.com website: WIRELESS MARKETING SERVICES AND PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ChannelOne.com may provide its users and viewers with the opportunity to register for special promotions, services, news, programming and information delivered via text messaging and other wireless devices such as mobile phones. Users are required to...
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Obligation has said it for ten years: Channel One’s TV show and its website are not age-appropriate for middle school students. Now Channel One agrees with us, at least about the Channel One website. Below: Last month, this new language was very quietly placed on Channelone.com: The bold print is Channel One’s. If you...
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Barack Obama is the junior U. S. Senator from Illinois. Yesterday, Channel One ran a lengthy report on his recent visit to Africa. It was puzzling why Channel One’s producers chose this story for their broadcast. There were so many other more newsworthy stories to cover on August 30 when this show was taped....
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