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.
See our original story. Unbelievable that Channel One NEWS would do a news story on “Ads in schools” and not mention itself. But, that’s what students get when Channel One News is brought to them by a youth marketing company. (Channel One News was developed in order to put advertising in front of a...
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Texas has over 10% of all Houghton Mifflin/Channel One contracts. TOP TEN STATES TEXAS (10.6) OHIO (7.68) PENNSYLVANIA (6.02) TENNESSEE (5.34) ILLINOIS (4.81) MICHIGAN (4.64) ALABAMA (4.25) NORTH CAROLINA (3.73) LOUISIANA (3.68) MISSISSIPPI (3.66) SECOND TEN INDIANA (3.11) GEORGIA (3.09) KENTUCKY (2.59) SOUTH CAROLINA (2.57) FLORIDA (2.45) NEW JERSEY...
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From Jim Metrock: This news article is from 1989, the year Channel One was still being tested in seven pilot schools. Massachusetts never liked Channel One. Still today, the company has little presence in the state. How odd to now have an old Boston firm like Houghton Mifflin owning Channel One. Houghton...
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From Jim Metrock: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt says they inspire curiosity every day. As a major supplier of educational resources, I am sure they inspire millions of students to be more curious daily. However, this month the company itself did a very curious thing: they acquired the pariah of US education – Channel One. Why would...
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May 28, 2014 From Jim Metrock: I wrote this article 7 years ago. Primedia had just transferred Channel One News to Alloy Media and Marketing. Channel One’s owners, Primedia, admitted Channel One had little value. “De minimis” value if you will. I wonder how much value Channel One has added to itself in the years since being valued at...
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Alabama schools chief Tommy Bice urged to pull plug on Channel One Marie Leech al.comon August 06, 2012 at 6:30 AM Channel One screen capture image from its website. BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A Boston-based nonprofit group is asking Alabama school Superintendent Tommy Bice to suspend the use of Channel...
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Sloppy, unprofessional storytelling is now part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Share this video: http://youtu.be/G-ptO6vFAaY
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From Jim Metrock: Absolutely nothing is as it seems with Channel One News. This campaign looks like a noble effort of getting faster Internet connections into schools. And it is, but they are primarily looking after their corporate interests and not the interests of students. Channel One News used to...
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How can so few, lose so much, in so short a period of time? From Jim Metrock: In 1996 when I first found out about Channel One, David Tanzer was their CEO. David Tanzer 5 years David Tanzer was CEO during the Golden Age of Channel One (1993-1997). While the company...
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