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.

Junk Food Assault Begins On Day One

January 3, 2002

Channel One began their 2002 broadcast year today. With all the outcry in our country over childhood obesity and the rise in childhood Type II diabetes, Channel One continued to advertise Hostess Cupcakes to its captive audience of children. The commercial today was a continuation of last year’s massive campaign by Hostess to get students...
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News About Channel One June – Dec.

December 31, 2001
News About Channel One June – Dec.

Click here for the latest news on the Channel One News Controversy. God Bless America. Video Message Click Here For News About Channel One In 2002 News About Channel One 2001 (June – Dec.) Obligation’s Channel One Main Page …… News About C1 2000 …… News About C1 Jan – May 2001  The Mandatory...
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Channel One Launches Major Effort To Obtain Personal Information From Children

December 31, 2001

A schoolchild that has Channel One in his or her school is told to go to ChannelOne.com at least three times during the TV show. When the child arrives at Channel One’s much-promoted site, the first thing they see is a pop-up ad for the Cybiko company. The Cybiko ad cannot be avoided. Channel...
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“Casino Jack” Abramoff

December 17, 2001
“Casino Jack” Abramoff

Why is this man smiling? You would too, if you were "Casino Jack" Abramoff. He looks after the interests of casinos and Channel One. Both pay him an obscene amount of money. December 17, 2001 – "Casino Jack" Abramoff Channel One’s survival depends on federal government money – your tax money.  Without the public...
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“Smooth Criminal”?

December 10, 2001
“Smooth Criminal”?

Channel One is pouring rock and rap music into the classroom in an effort to grab the waning attention of students so they will watch the commercials. Channel One has always used music from artists known for their vulgar and violent lyrics, but the company appeared to be backing away from this practice.  That...
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Channel One Launches Major Effort To Obtain Personal Information From Children

December 3, 2001

A schoolchild that has Channel One in his or her school is told to go to ChannelOne.com at least three times during the TV show. When the child arrives at Channel One’s much-promoted site, the first thing they see is a pop-up ad for the Cybiko company. The Cybiko ad cannot be avoided. Channel...
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Channel One Pulls Plug On Weekly Updates For Teachers

December 3, 2001

http://www.channeloneteacher.com/wkupdate/index.html The link above will take you to Channel One’s "Weekly Update" for teachers. Like most things at C1, it is an exercise in futility. Few teachers care about Channel One and fewer will take the time to go to C1’s web site. (Channel One abandoned an email program that would have given teachers...
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Andrew

November 29, 2001

There are eight anchors at Channel One. These are people that schoolchildren have to watch each day because of the Channel One contract. These on-air personalities are the "face" of Channel One. They are the facade. These are the "pretend reporters". No matter how bad they are their audience is locked-in. Over the years, many...
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Seattle Deals Blow To Channel One

November 29, 2001

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134369669_schoolads22m.html
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Andrew

November 29, 2001

There are eight anchors at Channel One. These are people that schoolchildren have to watch each day because of the Channel One contract. These on-air personalities are the "face" of Channel One. They are the facade. These are the "pretend reporters". No matter how bad they are their audience is locked-in. Over the years, many...
Read More »