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.
Today, Channel One urged their captive audience of children to watch MTV tonight. MTV has become a major partner of Channel One and few parents know this. A former C1 anchor who now appears on MTV was back on Channel One today to pitch a show tonight about gangs. Jim Metrock said, "Being required...
Read More »
From Jim Metrock: Janet Choi is the Channel One anchor that came from MTV’s often vulgar TV show called The Real World. With the growing closeness of MTV and Channel One, it made sense to hire Choi even with her notoriety. Last week’s report by Choi on the U.S. airdrop of food over...
Read More »
Our complaints about Channel One’s web site having a "Personal Ads" feature have finally been heard. Indeed, Channel One has taken concrete steps to address our concerns. They changed the name of "Personal Ads" to "Meet & Greet". Same content as before. Children exchanging email addresses with complete strangers. Sample from 11/17/97: "My name...
Read More »
Jewel’s appearance on Channel One was timed for today’s release of her newest CD. The loss of advertisers has cause Channel One to sell air time to companies that want to promote singers, television shows and movies. This is a big gamble for Channel One since it openly violates the contract with schools. This...
Read More »
What the heck is this?! Below: How to make a teacher feel like a fool. November 12, 2001 – The Latest Insult To Teachers Channel One has a big problem. Potential advertisers are staying away from Channel One because Channel One can’t give them accurate figures for its audience. Many schools have kicked Channel One...
Read More »
There are eight anchors at Channel One. These are young people who 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,...
Read More »
Channel One’s in-school TV show constantly urges students to go to its channelone.com site. These advertisements for channelone.com are in addition to the "regular" advertising on the show. This breaches the Channel One contract that limits ads to no more than two minutes, but so far no school board attorneys that we know of...
Read More »
Last week, Primedia’s CEO Tom Rogers proudly told a conference call for investment analysts that Channel One will continue their relationship with MTV. There will be another special on Channel One that will be coproducer by MTV. It will air before the end of the year. Most parents understand the offensive content on MTV. MTV...
Read More »
Soleil Moon Frye, Channel One co-host on October 5, 2001 shouts "Check me out!" to promote that night’s premiere of TV show. How do you tell 8 million young people that the premiere of "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" is on tonight? Answer: Pay Channel One to have an actress from the show co-host Channel One...
Read More »
They have already gotten rid of their VP of Education. They said goodbye to their ivory tower on Madison Avenue. Their staff size has shrunk. Life isn’t good at Channel One nowadays. The days of free spending and high-living are over. Now Channel One has announced a cancellation of their Student Produced Week. This is...
Read More »
