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.
Eileen Wu (Columbia), Alexander Marquardt (Georgetown), Meka Nichols (Harvard Law) Channel One News limps into another school year after a disastrous 2005-06 season. After losing four of their reporters (Errol Barnett, Seth Doane, Melissa Knowles and Rich DeMuro), the company has hired these three to join Cali Carlin. At one time, when Channel One News was...
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One’s collapse continues. Years of mismanagement haunt this sad company. The mismanagement obviously is continuing. It looks as if PRIMEDIA, Inc. realizes that Channel One News is unsalable. Why they don’t simply shut down Channel One and donate the pathetically old TV equipment to schools remains a mystery. In the...
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In 2006 it is hard to imagine a school board that would seriously consider signing a contract with Channel One. Let’s hope the school board members will listen to the citizens who value education over marketing. from the Nutley Journal Channel One faces local residents By Roman J. Uschak, Staff Writer Wednesday,...
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Ralph Reed, Channel One’s longtime stooge, ran for Lt. Governor in Georgia. This week he was defeated by a relatively unknown state senator in the Republican primary. It was a race he should have easily won except for the friends he kept and the money he made from Indian tribes and the casinos they...
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The new home for what remains of Channel One’s programming staff. From Jim Metrock: It’s a long and brutal ride to the bottom for our friends at Channel One News. This week, I paid a visit to their new studio in Washington DC. I was underwhelmed, but not surprised. As a cost-cutting measure...
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From Jim Metrock: In 1999, the National Journal reported Channel One Network paid the Preston Gates lobbying firm in Washington DC $820,000. That figure represented only the first half of the year. That is a good example of the lavish spending habits of Channel One in the 90’s. This was the Golden Era...
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From Jim Metrock: In previous years, as Channel One News signed off for the summer, all the anchors would appear on the show together for a joyful "goodbye" to their captive student audience. One year, they all frolicked on the Santa Monica beach as they all talked about the stories they would cover in...
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PepsiCo’s Gatorade is a long-time advertiser on Channel One News. We have previously reported* about the enormous amounts of time Channel One allows Gatorade to sell their product to preteens and teens. In addition to commercials, Gatorade sponsor’s the weekly “Play of the Week” which is nothing more than a long-form commercial. Now Channel One News is going even...
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If student produced news stories appear on a Channel One nationally broadcast program, shouldn’t the school that expended the costs in creating the content receive a portion of Channel One’s advertising revenue? Channel One News is asking students to help them develop program content for the 2006-07 school year. This week, the company...
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One News is the self-proclaimed “preeminent news and public affairs content provider for teens.” It has also called itself the “leading provider of news and educational programs in America’s secondary schools.” They have said their company will continue their ” mission of educating and informing teens.” Critics of Channel One have always said it is a...
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