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.
From Jim Metrock: I took off a month to consider if I should end Obligation’s fight against Channel One. I have been researching and reporting on Channel One, and raising awareness of Channel One’s presence in American classrooms since 1996. I had a sense that Channel One’s current management wanted their classroom TV...
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From Jim Metrock: What you are about to read is taken directly from Channel One’s website (http://cdn.channelone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Channel-One-Network-Advertising-Policies-and-Guidelines2.pdf) Obligation did not change a word. The kiddie marketers at Channel One News wanted to boast to educators and parents that they did indeed have limits to what they would advertise to their captive audience...
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From Jim Metrock: Bishop Fenwick High School in Franklin, Ohio shows Channel One News on its classroom TV sets. (I can hear Channel One’s advertisers and CEO C.J. Kettler shouting with joy, “There IS a school that actually watches Channel One News!”) Every day right before school ends, students are read announcements, bow their...
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One should at least be happy that Mullins High shows their TV show “between the bells.” There is no before-school or after-school showing at this school. What Mullins does do is cut 1/3 off the daily program. Only 8 minutes of Channel One News is shown and that means one...
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From Philadelphia Business Journal Dec 19, 2013 School advertising equals pocket change, not a gold mine School students may see much more advertising if a new bill passes. Samantha Freda, Contributor At the start of the new year, City Council will decide whether or not to allow advertising in Philadelphia schools to generate...
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From Jim Metrock: In past years, Shepherd Hill Regional High School has limited the showing of 12-minute Channel One News to no more than 2 minutes per day. As you may or not remember this was last year’s bell schedule: https://obligation.org/2012-11-12-2-minutes-is-still-too-much-time-to-waste-with-channel-one-news. The 2013-14 bell schedule again shows little love for the youth marketers of...
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From Jim Metrock: Few California schools ever thought about experimenting with Channel One’s classroom marketing. When Oak Park High School signed up with Channel One News back in 1991 it made national news. There was no national news made when the school quietly stopped showing Channel One News to students....
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From Jim Metrock: West Holmes Middle School in Millersburg, Ohio begins their school day precisely at 7:28. If you aren’t in class when the 7:28 tardy bell goes off you are, well, tardy. Students can be in the hall or outside at 7:15, 7:20, and 7:25, but at 7:28 school starts. ...
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Jim Metrock: The remaining employees of Channel One News have to be feeling pretty low. Their audience keeps getting smaller and smaller and schools are more and more disregarding Channel One’s viewing requirements. Here’s what Channel One says in their contract: Channel One News must be shown when students are present and seated in...
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One’s advertising has always been the main reason schools have refused to allow Channel One News into their classrooms. Channel One is now offering an advertising-free version via a subscription. I am assuming they are charging $3.50 per CLASSROOM and not per student. Channel One doesn’t make that clear in...
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