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.

Collapsing: Channel One News loses another 500,000 student viewers.

October 2, 2012
Collapsing: Channel One News loses another 500,000 student viewers.

 Channel One News is quickly disappearing from classrooms.   There are a lot of tears nowadays at Channel One News. Plummeting audience numbers means shrinking ad revenue.Shrinking ad revenue of course means… oh no, there go the tears again.   A 9.0% loss of audience follows 2011’s loss of 8.3%. For the last two years...
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“Pay attention to the rock n roll education.”

October 1, 2012
“Pay attention to the rock n roll education.”

This rock band feels so comfortable using Channel One News to promote their obscure group to students during taxpayer-funded school time that they brag about it on their blog. All last week, Channel One News promoted The Kicks. Channel One featured The Kicks music during the show’s introduction. The Kicks music played again for...
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This man decides what will be advertised in your child’s classroom.

September 28, 2012
This man decides what will be advertised in your child’s classroom.

 And, bless his heart, he just has a knack for making incredibly poor decisions.   Kent Haehl, CEO of Channel One News   Mr. Haehl, an ad salesman, was hired as Channel One’s CEO in August 2007. At the time, Channel One claimed they had “over 7 million” students under contract. After five years...
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Channel One News teaches: 1. Crime pays. 2. Never take a knife to a gun fight.

September 25, 2012
Channel One News teaches: 1. Crime pays. 2. Never take a knife to a gun fight.

Channel One’s content is becoming darker and darker. Channelone.com is exposing children of all ages to Channel One’s wide range of controversial advertisers. Promethean’s partnership with Channel One is proving to be an unmitigated disaster. Promethean has to take responsibility for exposing 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to the toxic Channel One News brand....
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Why would Channel One News advertise this movie to 11-year-old children?

September 25, 2012
Why would Channel One News advertise this movie to 11-year-old children?

  Another outrageous movie advertised on Channel One News. Warning: Offensive content below.  Parents Guide for The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) The content of this page was created directly by users and has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff.  Sex & Nudity Sex is a big part of the story here....
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Channel One News sells horror and violence to middle school students.

September 21, 2012
Channel One News sells horror and violence to middle school students.

    Explain this, Channel One.    
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Selling filth to kids: Channel One News urges students to buy Crashing Broadway CD.

September 20, 2012
Selling filth to kids: Channel One News urges students to buy Crashing Broadway CD.

Thank you, Channel One News, for introducing my band to middle school students. This is Derrick Riggan the drummer for the Channel One News-advertised band Crashing Broadway. From Jim Metrock: Channel One went into overdrive promoting the band Crashing Broadway. 1. First, school time was used every day for an entire week to play...
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Find the movie ad on Channel One’s front page.

September 19, 2012
Find the movie ad on Channel One’s front page.


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Wasting tax money: Was this video shown in schools?

September 16, 2012
Wasting tax money: Was this video shown in schools?

From Jim Metrock: Channel One’s Executive Producer published this video in 2010. Even though it was made available to the public, I didn’t discover it until recently. The video is below. At first it appears to be nothing more than a funny, tongue in cheek video made by fellow Channel One News employees to...
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Channel One News violates contract with schools by advertising unrated movie.

September 15, 2012
Channel One News violates contract with schools by advertising unrated movie.

Channel One News is not only advertising a movie (unrated as of now) to preteens and elementary school-age children on their website (and more than likely on their middle school and high school TV broadcasts), but is also running a contest for the film.  The picture below is the top of Channelone.com’s home page...
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