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.
It is time that the public gives Cingular a call, or better, a hand-written letter, telling them it is time to stop advertising on Channel One News. Cingular is easily one of the three largest advertisers on the failing in-school TV show. (The U.S. Government and Gatorade are the two others.) Cingular should be singled out as one...
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Food and ad industry warned to stop targeting children 06/04/2005 – Democrat Senator Tom Harkin yesterday sent a strong message to the food industry, saying that it must move swiftly to stop the advertising aimed at children that was creating a “botched” generation. His speech was given at a joint conference of the American Advertising Federation, the...
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Children watching Channel One News at school are now watching repeated commercials for Bubblicious bubble gum featuring NBA star LeBron James. At least three times each show, students are urged to go to Channelone.com. At this web site, students see banner ads for Bubblicious. Clicking on the banner ads immediately takes them to Bubblicious.com. Obligation’s president Jim Metrock said,...
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Students routinely see feature stories on Channel One News about teenagers with drug or alcohol PROBLEMS. Typically, the Channel One reporter will end the story looking at the camera and saying, "If you know someone with a drinking problem, visit Channel One.com." The executives who produce Channel One News clearly believe that occasional or...
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Note: Gatorade has been for over a decade, and is currently, a major advertiser on Channel One News. Each Friday, Channel One runs a long-form advertisement for the product called the "Gatorade Play of the Week." Students send in video clip of a sports play and then if their clip is chosen the school...
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Casino Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed Don’t let the smiles fool ya. Masters of Sleaze by David Brooks Op-ed in the New York Times March 22, 2005 Down in the depths of the netherworld, where Tammany Hall grafters and Chicago ward heelers gather amid spittoons and brass railings, a reverential silence now spreads across...
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Each year Channel One News offers a chance for students to help produce one week of the program. This is called Student Produced Week (SPW). For months, Channel One wastes valuable time on their show to promote this event. This year they took a page from reality shows and had four students co-host the...
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Gary Boyes believes his daughter’s school should serve his daughter and other students, not Pepsi or Channel One. He has even sued Channel One in his home state of Oregon. He first made news for protesting his school district’s exclusive cola contract. This outrageous contract prevented his daughter from selling water to raise money...
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Before we explain the strange language above, how about a little quiz? Watch this video clip from the end of a Channel One show. The questions will pertain to what you read on the video clip. It will play at the actual speed students saw it in their classrooms. Obligation didn’t speed it up, honest. You can watch...
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01011110100010110000000000000000000000 From Jim Metrock: Last year, at an education conference I met several superintendents and principals who painted a dismal picture of Channel One and their maintenance contractor Convergent Media. TVs weren’t being maintained or replaced on a timely basis. Network problems were taking months to be fixed. The problems with Convergent will...
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