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.
When Houghton Mifflin’s Channel One News plays videos from students, there is a tremendous savings for the in-classroom TV show. Every minute of student-produced content is one minute less Channel One has to create. Do other schools want to see student-made videos about their upcoming prom? Absolutely not, but Channel...
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Is the stink of Channel One causing Houghton Mifflin people to panic? December 12, 2014: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ:HMHC) Insider Mary Johanna Cullinane unloaded 15,000 shares of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt stock on the open market in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.18, for...
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From Jim Metrock: (February 26, 2015) This week Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMHC) announced they lost $83.7 million in their fourth quarter. For the year they lost $111.5 million. Wall Street analysts predicted HMHC to post a quarterly loss of 28 cents per share, but the loss was 59 cents. Houghton Mifflin’s purchase of Channel One...
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From Jim Metrock: This movie contest is on Channel One’s website Channelone.com. This is the site that students in high school to elementary school go to find out more information after seeing the Channel One News show in their classrooms. Channel One rarely posts the MPAA ratings...
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Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood – 2012
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From the Houghton Mifflin/ Channel One News script: Last up, at least 25 people were killed in a plane crash yesterday, crashing into a bridge in Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei. A car’s dashboard camera captured the moment the plane came careening sideways out of the sky toward traffic; the plane’s wing clipping...
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From Jim Metrock: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt made a bad decision when they took over Channel One News.HMH evidently thought they could convert Channel One’s old videos and transcripts into a product that schools would not only desire, but would actually buy (with real money). It hasn’t happened. It won’t happen. Houghton Mifflin acquired a...
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From Jim Metrock: Our Wastin’ Time & Tax Dollar$ Award is back and Parkway High School in Bossier City, Louisiana is our first winner for 2015. Congratulation to Dr. Nichole Bourgeois the principal of Parkway High, and her Board of Education members Billie Jo Brotherton, Brad Bockhaus, Frank Kelly, William Lott,...
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A: “No” From Jim Metrock: Channel One News isn’t inspiring many students. This post was put up on December 8. Today is December 11 – three days later. Channel One claims over 100,000 “likes” on Facebook, yet only three people have commented. I am sure more will comment in the coming days, but I doubt Channel One will attract...
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From Jim Metrock: This post is from Channel One’s Facebook page. I viewed their FB page today (November 21,2014) and worked my way back in time. I wanted to see the highest number of responses any one post received. Channel One is still claiming “nearly 5 million” in its audience. So one would think...
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