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.
Promethean no longer “powering” Channel One News.
From Jim Metrock: At the end of January, Channel One News dropped their ending voice-over and graphic proclaiming the program was “Powered by Promethean.” The significance of the change is unclear. It was never clear what “powered” meant in the context it was used. A few schools used their Promethean white...
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Channel One News pitching “Nearly naked” makeup to kids.
Channel One News is allowing Revlon to use celebrity endorsements to sell makeup to children… during school time. Forcing children to watch celebrity endorsements for provocatively named beauty products may not be the best use of taxpayer-funded school time.
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Revisiting the Economic Impact of Channel One
Channel One News in public schools still costs taxpayers $1.8 billion annually. An Analysis of Channel One in Secondary Classrooms The purpose of this study was to update a 1998 study by Sawicky and Molnar (1998) that tabulated what the researchers defined as a “hidden cost” of commercialism in public schools. Specifically, the...
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Gimme five! George Jenkins High allots five minutes to Channel One News.
From Jim Metrock: George Jenkins High School in Lakeland, FL used to be one of Channel One’s favorite schools. Like nearby Bartow High, Jenkins was a “Channel One Flagship School.” Students would often be interviewed by Channel One and appear on the program. But things have changed. Today this “A-rated” Florida school has...
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1996: The high point of Channel One’s kiddie marketing dreams.
From Jim Metrock: This is one of my favorite articles. I clipped it out of Advertising Age magazine way back in 1996. Heidi Diamond was just hired by Channel One News to help take the kiddie marketing company to new heights. In 1996, Channel One was making so much money it was...
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Plagiarism at Channel One News
A link entitled “Ten Things to Know for Monday” on the front page of Channelone.com took readers to the above article. We shrunk it down to show the whole article as one image. There is no author or source attribution at the beginning or the end. Anyone reading this would assume Channel One staffers...
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Prequel to Sex in the City advertised on Channel One News.
Channel One News is actively plugging The Carrie Diaries before its January 14 premiere on the CW Network. Channel One News is enticing teens and children to watch the Sex in the City prequel by offering them a chance to win a two day trip to New York City and a $1,50o0 gift...
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