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.
Here comes the boom, Channel One.
From October 2, 2012. Here’s a good example of why thousands of schools have dropped Channel One over the past few years. This one clip is 40 seconds long. 40 seconds X 4.8 million students is a lot of wasted time. Those seconds were paid for by taxpayers. Taxpayers have every right to ask...
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An email to Kent Haehl and Paul Folkemer
Official movie poster for The Possession. From Jim Metrock: I saw this Channel One News-promoted horror movie in September and wrote the two men that I believe are ultimately responsible for advertising it to young people not only on the Channelone.com website, but in American high school and middle school classrooms. I now...
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Undivided Attention
From Jim Metrock: If anyone doubts the disdain and contempt Channel One News has for students, study this infamous ad the company placed in Advertising Age in the late 90’s. 1. This ad was aimed at potential advertisers. 2. This ad is not about education. It’s not about teaching a student anything. It is...
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Why is this man smiling?
From Jim Metrock: Jim Marshall just got a promotion. That’s good news for him, right? There’s a reason for him to smile. Except that… Marshall is now the CEO of Promethean World. Ugh. (The previous smiling Promethean CEO before he was fired.) Promethean World is a British company in a World of hurt. (July...
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Losing 1 school per day for 5,000 days straight.
Schools continue to remove the hyper-commercial Channel One News from their classrooms.
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Catholic HS refuses to honor Channel One News contract.
Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart relegates Channel One News to early morning time slot. Advertisers pay dearly for no one to see their ads. http://www.sacredheartacademy.org/
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Hollywood dominates Channel One News. Yet another movie promoted to students.
Hollywood movie studios love Channel One News. They are constantly using Channel One to promote their latest movies to a captive audience of young people. So far this 2012-13 school year, Channel One has been advertising a new movie every week. Although this practice annoys principals and teachers, it makes Channel One News a...
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GA principal wants no loss of school time. Plays Channel One before start of school day.
Cairo High removes Channel One News from their school day. Cairo High School has expelled Channel One News from their school day. Like many schools that have yet to end their contract with the controversial youth marketing company, Cairo High has moved the airing of Channel One News to a time before...
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Can’t even give Channel One News InterActiv away.
The unholy alliance of Promethean white boards with the extremely controversial Channel One News program appears to not be going well. (Who could have seen that coming?!) Now schools are being offered the first year free. Of course a company doesn’t make such an offer if customers are already buying their product. Now Promethean...
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