Does your school still have Channel One News?
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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 Advertises Another “Heavy Alcohol” Movie

January 17, 2003
Channel One Advertises Another “Heavy Alcohol” Movie

Warner Brothers has a new movie. It’s called “Kangraroo Jack”. It is rated “PG” which means there is a parental warning because of the film’s content. Reviewers say the movie should have received a tougher rating. Screenit.com rates the alcohol/drug content of this movie as “Heavy”. The only higher rating for content is “Extreme.” One of the greatest concerns...
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Another Soft Drink Is Advertised On Channel One

January 16, 2003
Another Soft Drink Is Advertised On Channel One

How do you get children to add another soft drink to their diets? You enlist Channel One’s help. PepsiCo wants teens and pre-teens to start drinking their relatively new lemon-lime carbonated beverage – Sierra Mist. PepsiCo is one of Channel One’s largest advertisers for over six years. Channel One is running this ad on their web site www.channelone.com. It...
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New York Times Front Page Article Rips Channel One

January 14, 2003

Monday’s New York Times had a front page article (Eat Your Vegetables? Only at a Few Schools”) that mentions Channel One. I provide the link below and the section that mentioned Channel One. The New York Times has a free site but you need to register. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/13/national/13LUNC.html “In most schools across the country the cafeteria...
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Channel One News: A Disruption of the Educational Environment

January 12, 2003

Most schools have a code of conduct for students. In student handbooks, school administrators spell out conduct that will not be tolerated. Various degrees of punishment are laid out so students can clearly understand the consequence of certain behavior. The common denominator for most school rules is whether an action disrupts the educational environment....
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Alanis Morisette Becomes News Anchor To Push Latest CD

January 9, 2003
Alanis Morisette Becomes News Anchor To Push Latest CD

Channel One claims to have a captive audience of 8 million students. Advertisers like the fact that young people are compelled to watch their ads so the advertisers pay over $200,000 for ONE 30-second ad. But sometimes a company wants to do more than just run a regular commercial on Channel One News. If you have more money,...
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Parents Object To Channel One News In Indiana

January 9, 2003

Parents Object To Commercials In School JANUARY 8, 2003 BY MATTHEW WEIGELT, Times-Union Staff Writer NORTH MANCHESTER –The commercials shown on Channel One, a current-events news program geared to a middle school-age audience, disturbed several parents who took issue Tuesday with its addition into the junior high school. Manchester Community Schools School Board tabled...
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Nebraska Catholic HS Removes Channel One News

January 5, 2003
Nebraska Catholic HS Removes Channel One News

This is an article by a student documenting the removal of Channel One News from Marian H.S. in Omaha, Nebraska. This is a Catholic school. There is no date on the article but appears to be around March, 2002. The situation at this high school is typical of many other schools under contract to...
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Indiana School Asks Channel One News To Leave

January 4, 2003
Indiana School Asks Channel One News To Leave

September 2001 Issue, The Reveille, Brownsburg High School, Brownsburg, Indiana Passing Extended; Loss of Channel 1 At the start of the school year many students and teachers’ wishes were granted. For many years students had been forced to watch Channel One, a news show based on world news, high schools, and students. This year...
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Why Channel One “News” Will Collapse

January 1, 2003

As I am watching my Auburn Tigers play Penn State, I am also typing this article on my Mac PowerBook laptop. When I am finished writing, I will press a key and it will be sent to Obligation’s web site for viewing across the country. I installed an inexpensive, wireless connection to the Internet...
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“Children’s Only Source For News” Goes Dark

November 29, 2002

From Jim Metrock: I have heard it too often from the Channel One hacks – "You can’t get rid of Channel One at your school because we are the only source of news for many of the students." I have learned to control my gag reflex when I hear that, but I still shake...
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