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.

Channel One Gets Brutal

August 19, 2005
Channel One Gets Brutal

Channel One News, your “Dead Body” station. The first week of Channel One News has got to have teachers very concerned. The graphic images being presented to pre-teens are appalling, even by Channel One’s standards. Dead bodies are everywhere and middle school students are getting the same gory feed that the high school students are receiving. On Thursday,...
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As If Channel One Needs More Bad News

August 18, 2005
As If Channel One Needs More Bad News

Channel One News was born with the help of money-grabbing politicians (example: Lamar Alexander) and it continues today by paying elected officials (example: the majority of Alabama state board of education members have received money from Channel One’s lobbyist Martin Christie). Channel One’s army of lobbyists had a general -Jack Abramoff. We at Obligation...
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Channel One Starts, But Who Is Watching? Or Listening?

August 15, 2005
Channel One Starts, But Who Is Watching? Or Listening?

If a tree falls in a forest with no one to hear it, does it make a sound? Channel One News started their broadcasts today, but who cares? The show has become irrelevant to students and teachers. The TV sets often don’t work or school officials have unplugged the cables from Channel One’s satellite...
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Education Week Article

August 8, 2005
Education Week Article

Channel One Struggling in Shifting Market CEO of TV newscast confronts loss of ads and aging technology. By Rhea R. Borja (Culpeper, VA) http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/07/27/43channel.h24.html In a Culpeper Middle School classroom one rainy morning this past spring, the morning news aired on a wall-mounted television set: a deadly helicopter crash in Iraq, prescription drug abuse...
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Channel One Plays Both Sides Of Teen Drinking

August 8, 2005
Channel One Plays Both Sides Of Teen Drinking

"Time to party." This still is from Stealing Harvard. It is just one of the many Channel One News-advertised movies that send extremely dangerous drug and alcohol messages to young people. Stealing Harvard was advertised to young people on Channel One News. The alcohol content in the movie is sickening. The movie normalizes teen...
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Bubble Gum For The Mind

July 28, 2005
Bubble Gum For The Mind

Basketball star LeBron James shows Channel One News students how to blow a Bubblicious bubble. Children saw numerous Bubblicious bubble gum commercials on C1N this spring. More are coming.   Bubble gum is a fitting product for Channel One News to advertise. The company can’t give up its deep ties to junk food. Obligation expects bubble gum...
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Rock Band Buys Entire Channel One Show In April

July 25, 2005
Rock Band Buys Entire Channel One Show In April

Introduction of band. End of show. All done during school time.   Channel One turned over the April 27 show to a rock band that needed publicity. It was a beautiful deal: the band would play for free on Channel One News and in exchange get their music before millions of kids that couldn’t turn the TV off....
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More Time For Classes – Channel One Dropped

July 18, 2005
More Time For Classes – Channel One Dropped

Posted on Wed, Jul. 06, 2005 High school schedule to change Excelsior Springs board OKs late start By PATRICE R. HOLDERBACH The Kansas City Star Alyssa Jewell and her fellow classmates at Excelsior Springs High School have the option of sleeping in a tad later once a week next year. That’s because teachers will...
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Controversial New Drug Ad On Channel One News

July 17, 2005
Controversial New Drug Ad On Channel One News

Click here to see the commercial shown to middle school kids. (April 27, 2005)   Obligation has just received tapes of Channel One News for April and May. One commercial caught our attention instantly. It shows how desperate Channel One has gotten. They can’t turn away any company’s ad money – no matter how...
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Promoting Soft Drinks To Kids Never Stops At Channel One

July 14, 2005
Promoting Soft Drinks To Kids Never Stops At Channel One

A screen shot from Channel One’s official web site. July 2005 This week Channel One added this "news" article to their web site. Stephanie Smith is a Channel One News employee that has a reputation for mindless drivel. The junk food culture of Channel One News runs deep. Notice Ms. Smith’s choice of subjects....
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