Excerpt from Children and Consumer Culture in American Society: A Historical Handbook and Guide (2007)
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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.
Talking about Channel One News: Lisa Jacobson
Birmingham News: Alabama schools chief Tommy Bice urged to pull plug on Channel One
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A Boston-based nonprofit group is asking Alabama school Superintendent Tommy Bice to suspend the use of Channel One programming in Alabama schools, reopening a debate over whether the 12-minute broadcast aimed at teens is appropriate. The group, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, asserts that the Channel One television news program —...
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From the archives: Seattle kicks Channel One News to curb
Schools expel Channel One; new policy also limits ads, logos Thursday, November 22, 2001 By Keith Ervin Seattle Times staff reporter Disavowing its earlier flirtation with corporations catering to young consumers, the Seattle School Board voted yesterday to kick Channel One out of the schools and tone down the advertising on Coca-Cola vending machines. Although...
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And Promethean thinks partnering with pariah Channel One will help them?
Promethean continues its struggle through first half Interim H1 results reflect continued education sales contraction By Fleur Doidge Interactive education tech vendor Promethean kept up the fight against falling demand from the schools of western Europe and the US but still saw revenue shrink 22.9 per cent for the six months ended 30 June. Interim...
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As advertised on Channel One News: Mountain Dew (October 24, 2000)
Channel One News has contributed mightily to the youth obesity crisis.
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gURL.com STILL being heavily promoted by Channel One News
The official Channel One News website greets elementary school and high school students with a big homepage banner ad for the sexually-charged gURL.com site. Screen shot from July 27, 2012. Children clicking on “Need advice” go to gURL.com where every page has a link to their “Love & Sex” page for girls. Here...
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As advertised on Channel One News: Gatorade – celebrity endorsement Mia Hamm (Feb. 2, 2005)
Channel One News allows celebrity endorsements in its commercials. 10-year-old children required to watch the show may not be fully able to understand celebrities are paid to say good things about a product.
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From the archives: Trend-setting tweens are forced to watch our ads… and they love them! (1999)
ddd “To make your Tween media buy as effective as possible, check out the power of Channel One!”
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Complete, unedited Channel One News for April 6, 1998
Interrupting class time to urge middle school students to drink more Pepsi? Channel One News advertised Pepsi products for over a decade. ;
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