McDonalds was a major advertiser on Channel One News until public pressure on McDonalds forced the fast food company to end their classroom advertising.
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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.
As advertised on Channel One News: McDonalds (2003)
From the archives: Unparalleled impact among teen viewers (1999)
Channel One News no longer has 8.1 million teenager viewers. They now claim “nearly” 5.5 million. When they boast of “unparalleled impact among teen viewers” they are not referring to enhancing young people’s knowledge of current events. They are of course referring to the effectiveness of commercials on the show. This piece of sales...
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Talking about Channel One News: Juliet Schor (2005)
From Dr. Juliet Schor’s 2005 book Born to Buy. Juliet B. Schor’s research has focused on the economics of work, spending, environment, and the consumer culture. She is the author of The Overworked American and The Overspent American. Schor is a professor of sociology at Boston College, a former member of the Harvard economics...
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With Channel One News the odds are always in favor of advertisers, not students.
Above: Front page of the official website of Channel One News. Can you tell what these kiddie marketers think is the big news story of the day? It’s the midnight release!! Ads for Hunger Games DVDs and Blu-ray discs have been plastered over the entire website all week. Below: Guess who welcomed students...
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From the archives: Wasting time with Channel One News (2010)
There is very little hard news on Channel One News. The company is a kiddie marketing company and selling stuff to a captive audience of schoolchildren is what Channel One is all about. This Play of the Week does two things. First, it wastes time. This is filler. Showing this is cheaper than actually...
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Complete, unedited Channel One News for February 2, 2005
Channel One News prevents parents from seeing the commercials they send to American classrooms. They remove commercials from their playback for parents on Channelone.com. Obligation provides parents and the public with the full Channel One shows that students were forced to watch while they sit at their desks.
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As advertised on Channel One News: Seventeen magazine (January 8, 1999)
At the time Seventeen magazine was a sister company to Channel One News. Even though Seventeen contained content that was age-inappropriate for preteens, Channel One heavily advertised it in American middle schools.
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Channel One’s first day: Massive ad campaign for Hunger Games DVD/ Blu-ray
It’s almost like Channel One News executives Kent Haehl and Paul Folkemer want educators to hate their company. With Channel One coming under renewed criticism for their advertising assault on schoolchildren, one would think the company would trim back their advertising. Instead the first day of Channel One’s 2012-13 broadcast year began with a...
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