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.
Images (Images Archive) All photos from Channel One News unless indicated. Above: Ten-year-olds through high school seniors watched in amazement in 2001 as a sultry singer in a skimpy two-piece outfit and see-through body netting grinds on Channel One News pushing Pepsi. This particular commercial ran many times. Just ONE commercial (30 seconds long)...
Read More »
From Jim Metrock: There is just so much stuff! We can’t keep up and we are falling farther behind. There are still reports we should write and publish concerning Channel One from the 2000-2001 school year! I had hoped that 2002 would be a year that Obligation would shift some of its resources to...
Read More »
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE DOES NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. 1. Eligibility: Entrant must be a Channel One Network student between the ages of 11 and 18, and a legal resident of the 48 contiguous United States and the District of Columbia as of Sunday, March 17, 2002. Employees...
Read More »
Developing story: Madonna’s recording company, Maverick Records, is now a very significant advertiser on Channel One News. Channel One is running a major contest that is loaded with problems for teachers, principals and school boards. On Channel One’s web site the "top story" of the day, a Monday, was the introduction of this contest....
Read More »
Why is this man smiling? You would to if you had the money Channel One News was paying Ralph Reed. Ralph Reed continues to work in the shadows for Channel One. Reed has been receiving money from Channel One since at least 1999, although he does not publicly acknowledge his contract with them. Obligation...
Read More »
A new advertiser on Channel One is the Women’s Sports Foundation. This nonprofit has been running their spots on C1 for the last two months. On yesterday’s and today’s show, Donna Lopiano,a spokesperson for the Foundation was given significant interview time for a story about a 1972 law concerning sports programs for women and girls. Also, the...
Read More »
OFFICIAL RULES NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE DOES NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. YOU MUST BE 13 YEARS OF AGE TO ENTER THE PROMOTION. 1. Eligibility: Entrant must be from a Channel One school, between 13-18 years of age, and a legal resident of the 48 contiguous United States and...
Read More »
From: <jimmetrock@mindspring.com> Date: Sat Mar 09, 2002 11:43:25 PM US/Central To: jmorris@channelone.com Subject: Apologize on air for using reporters to push products Dear Mr. Morris: Although I believe you should resign for allowing your young reporters to unethically do ads during the non-commercial part of Channel One News, I think it is much more...
Read More »
This is Derrick Shore. He is a Channel One reporter. He is proudly wearing a Columbia Sportswear jacket. We have already reported on his modeling of advertiser’s clothing during the Olympics. Shore is not a real journalist, so apparently it did not cross his mind that he was violating journalistic standards, but still he...
Read More »
When Channel One’s obituary is written, March 6, 2002 will surely be mentioned. Yesterday, after the second and last block of commercials, Channel One reporters did an extended commercial for Cingular Wireless cell phones – during the supposedly non-commercial part of the TV show. Obligation’s Jim Metrock said, "This is a shocker. To see...
Read More »
